Hanahaki
by Cassandra Ann 15
Summary: What if Hannah never died last year at the cabin... And instead, her sister and best friend did? Well, you know what they say about the Butterfly Effect... Change one thing and Boom! Everyone's dead. Or are they?
1. Pushed Too Far

Even through the fogged glass, even through the dark shroud that surrounded the lodge and blanketed over the cold mountain, even through her own drunken daze with hooded eyes and a small smirk still apparent on her tanned face, Beth _swore _that she saw something move out in the snow. She tilted her head and waited for further signs of movement as she lazily gazed out the glass window, her left hand still firmly wrapped around her solo cup. Nothing happened. Beth waited a few more moments and then slowly raised her cup to her lips, her head turning slightly to listen closer to the hushed whispers coming from upstairs.

* * *

"Oh my god, I can't believe you actually did this!"

"Don't you guys think this is a little bit cruel?"

"Come on, she deserves it."

Sam looked at Jessica with a mixture of shock and repulsion written across her face, picking at the hem of her red sweater as she mulled over the words her friend had just uttered. She tried again, "And it's not her fault she has a huge crush on Mike…"

"Hannah's making moves on him. I'm just looking out for my girl Em," Jess interrupted with an innocent smile and a knowing point in Emily's direction, the latter girl's own smile looking much more nefarious then the former's. Sam bit her lip and tried to catch Mike's eye as the small group walked out of the kitchen and into the spacious living room where Ashley and Matt were waiting patiently for them. Surely if anyone could talk Jess and Em out of going through with this prank, it would be Mike. Afterall, everyone had had a crush on the Class President at one time or another, Jessica being no exception.

"Ugh, just because he's Class Prez does NOT mean he belongs to everyone," Emily said as she walked swiftly behind Jess into the living room, shooting a sweet smile in Mike's direction that he quickly returned, "Mike is MY man."

Sam heard Mike shallowly laugh as he leisurely walked into living room, his reply of, "Hey Em. I'm not anybody's man," lost to her as she anxiously looked up the grand staircase that sat in the center of the room and that led directly to Hannah and Beth's room.

Emily snorted behind the blonde, her tone clipped and sing-songy as she said, "Whatever you say, darling!" Sam didn't turn back as she began to ascend the staircase, determined to find Hannah before the others had the chance to begin their ridiculous prank. Her mind swirled as she resisted the urge to take the steps two at a time, blocking out the other's voices as they called to her to come join the prank.

Sam would _never_ do that to Hannah. Teasing her about her unattainable crush on Mike was one thing, but using said crush to completely humiliate and degrade her was _completely _another. Reaching the landing with a worried look on her face, Sam walked briskly down one of the many hallways within the Washington Lodge and opened one of the doors at the end of it, hoping against hope Hannah would be close enough to hear her call her name.

The floorboards creaked as Sam walked through the door, closing it softly behind her. Looking to her left, she turned slowly around and called into the dark room that surrounded her, blue eyes searching for any sign of the eldest Washington daughter.

"Hannah!"

* * *

"Mike?"

Hannah's question filled the empty corridor as she walked slowly down the hallway, the candle in her left hand beginning to drip wax onto the ashen colored floor. Her heart hammered as she reached the end of the hallway, her hand hovering briefly over the door knob as she contemplated over the note she had received.

_Did- Was Mike being serious? Did he seriously want… her? What about Em; Had they broken up? Was he playing her, like how he had played almost all the girls in their school? Was this all just a joke? Or-or did he really want to be with her?_

Her thoughts swam as her right hand settled onto the cool metal of the doorknob and twisted. The door opened inward and, as she stepped over the threshold, her eyes landed on Mike, standing confidently in the middle of the room.

"Mike," Hannah stated simply as she turned to close the door behind her, the tightness of the blue and yellow flannel that Mike was wearing causing a heated feeling to settle low in the pit of her stomach. _He's really here. This isn't a joke._ "It's Hannah."

Mike took a step forward and, with a smirk gracing his handsome features, replied lowly, "Hey Hannah."

* * *

She saw it again. The movement that she had been looking for since she had seen it the first time only minutes ago. Eyes narrowing, Beth leaned forward over the counter top, placing her cup in the empty sink beneath her, and said, "Hey, did you see that? Dad said it would just be us this weekend." She waited a beat, her eyes searching through the hailing snow as it cascaded down from the sky, then turned away from the window to look back into the kitchen area. She had expected for her brother to respond to her question. "Josh?"

Beth walked away from the window, her eyes landing briefly onto both of the sleeping forms resting against countertop and sighed. Leave it to Josh and Chris to get shitfaced when there was a potential murderer up on the mountain with them. Shaking her head and rubbing some of the fogginess out of her eyes, Beth made a movement to go wake her brother up when her eyes landed on a piece of paper that lay on the counter opposite to Josh and his best friend.

Curious, Beth padded over to the paper, her movements slightly uncoordinated and jolty as she lifted the parchment gently with her right hand and began to read the message on the back.

"Hannah. You look so damn hot in that shirt… But I bet you're even hotter out of it. Come to the guest room at 2.00 am ;) Mike, XXX."

"Oh my God," Beth said with a note of incredibility in her voice, her lip turned upward into a look of disgust. She turned to her brother and, even though she knew he was dead asleep, asked sarcastically with a wave of the paper, "What did our naive sister get herself into now?" Placing the paper back where she found it, Beth rolled her eyes and said even louder and with even more sarcasm, trying one last tactic to wake up Josh before she kicked him off his chair and onto his ass, "Ugh! Intervention time!"

Nothing but snores responded to her and Beth huffed loudly, marching over to where Josh sat draped over the opposite side of the counter, his head pillowed by his sweater clad arms. _Correction, his head was pillowed by _Chris's _sweater that Josh just happened to be wearing_, she thought as she cocked her hip and poked Josh roughly in the shoulder. He mumbled something under his breath and Beth almost thought he would suddenly wake up and then they could go deal with Mike together.

But, she knew her brother better than that and the empty bottle of **Jeremiah Cragg** that sat directly to his right all but confirmed her suspicions. She picked up the empty bottle and tossed it between her hands, almost dropping it only once, before placing it back on the counter and patted Josh's back. "Geez Josh. Once again, brother, you've out done us all," Beth said with a grin as she tried one last time to wake him by roughly shaking his shoulders.

Sadly, he slept on and Beth resigned herself to finding Hannah alone as she walked back around the counter top, confirming that yes, Chris was also piss drunk and was indeed wearing Josh's blue and white flannel, and walked quickly towards the entrance to the living room, the dark figure she had seen earlier in the snow the farthest thing from her mind.

* * *

"I got your note."

"Glad you could make it."

Hannah smiled shyly at Mike as she turned to place her candlestick on a nearby countertop, her heart almost stopping when she saw Mike's smirk grow into an actual smile when she turned back around. She looked back briefly, then raised the rims of her glasses higher on her nose using the index finger of her right hand, and then looked down at the floor.

She could see Mike shuffle from foot to foot in front of her, her confidence returning enough that she could look back at the charming brunette in front of her. She thought his trepidation was sexy, something that she hadn't expected out of a man like Mike, but fully embraced. _That must mean he really likes me if he's nervous!_

His smile didn't ease up when he spoke his next words, his voice gravely with an underlying tone that Hannah presumed to be lust, "Maybe we should start with a little, you know, making out and see where it goes from there."

Hannah's blood began to sing as she looked giddly at Mike, her mind working in overdrive to help move her arms to the first button of her button up shirt. _This is it! This is really happening! I'm about to have sex with Michael Munroe, holyshitholyshitholyshit!_ Working down the buttons one at a time, her bare skin meeting the cold air and leaving goosebumps on her chest and arms, she heard Mike mutter under his breath, "Oh Hell yeah," his hazel eyes trailing over her chest and over the butterfly tattoo she had gotten on her right shoulder.

Before long, her shirt was completely off and she felt happier than she had in a long time. Clutching the garment in her left fist, she grinned stupidly and took a step forward, eager to take the Class President into her arms and to kiss him like the damn world was ending and to finally have what she had been pinning after for years, but had been too afraid to do anything about…

"Oh my God." A whisper interrupted Hannah's thoughts and she stopped walking, her ears prickling at the sound of other people's voices. Maybe they were outside the room? Maybe she and Mike should move to a different area of the house? She bet Josh knew plenty of good hiding places for-, "She's taking her shirt off!"

"What?" Hannah whipped the shirt up to her chest as a blonde head poked out from under the bed to her right. A blonde head that looked suspiciously like Jessica's. "Oh my God!" Hannah managed to squeak out as the closet door on the opposite side of the room opened to reveal Matt holding a video recorder. The door next to closet opened next, revealing a crestfallen Ashley. Emily poked her head out from under the opposite side of the bed and Hannah quickly raised her arms to cover her exposed chest, tears beginning to prick at the corners of her eyes. _What. The. Hell were _they _doing here?_

"M-matt?" she asked with a shake in her voice, watching as he quickly shut off the camera of the video recorder and gave her a sheepish look, his brown eyes traveling everywhere but to her face. The only person looking directly at her was Emily, a look of triumph glowing brightly behind her narrow eyes that Hannah desperately wanted to escape from.

Turning back to Matt, she locked eyes with him and, when he opened his mouth to presumably speak, Hannah shook her head and said with anguish in her voice, "What are you doing here?!"

The door to her right slammed open and, to Hannah's relief and dismay, Sam stepped through with wide eyes and outstretched arms. "Hannah. Hannah hey," Sam began as she stepped into the room, Hannah recoiling away from her so-called best friend and curling further into herself. She felt like she was going to throw up. _How COULD they!? How did they even fucking know!? It's not like I screamed it to the world!_

"This all got out of hand," Mike was saying, his smile long since dropped from his face, but Hannah didn't hear him. She didn't WANT to hear him. She just wanted to GET OUT.

"MIKE!" Hannah shouted as she choked back a sob and ripped open the door Sam had closed when she had entered the guest bedroom, her hands quickly buttoning up her shirt as she ran down the hallway to the grand staircase. _Get out. Get out. I just need to GET OUT._

* * *

She saw the figure for the third time that night as she reached the door that led to the living room, her brown eyes widening and her mouth forming into a perfect O as she looked back out the large window that was now the only barrier between her and this stranger. Cold sweat began to creep slowly down her back as the figure ran quickly out of the youngest Washington's line of sight, a slight gasp escaping her lips nonetheless.

Beth stood stock still for a moment, her mind racing because now there was _definitely_ someone up here on the mountain and she couldn't brush off the mysterious figure as a trick of her imagination, much to her dismay. _What the Hell. What the fuck. _Beth's fists clenched and unclenched at her sides, her brown eyes shining with an idea, as she rushed back into the Kitchen and towards her brother, the only thought on her mind being that Josh needed to WAKE UP.

"Josh! JOSH!" Beth exclaimed as she halted beside his sleeping form, a small snort escaping his lips as Beth yanked hard on his shoulders with her hands. She shook him again, jostling his head enough that it slipped off of it's arm pillow and landed with a hard thump onto the countertop. Panic began to settle like a stone on Beth's heart when he still didn't wake. Briefly contemplating whether or not she should try to wake Chris, for he was the lighter sleeper of the pair, Beth quickly thought better of it and ran quickly back towards the door that led to the living room, a harsh, "Fuck!" leaving the youngest Washington's lips.

She stumbled as she yanked open the door, her breath heaving out of her lips as she looked about the ground floor of the lodge, listening carefully to see if she could hear the whispers her friends had made earlier from upstairs. She didn't hear anything. "Guys! There's someone outside!" Beth called into the empty house, taking a few steps forward as she spun around, her eyes desperately scanning the grey foyer from every angle for a sign that any of her friends were nearby.

Shuffling footsteps resounded from behind the grand staircase, where the main entrance to the lodge was. Beth's blood turned to ice, for a moment believing that the stranger had somehow found his way inside and was watching her right that moment from behind the slots in between the stairs. "What the Hell?" Beth whispered to herself as she unconsciously grabbed her pink parka with her right hand from on top of a chair covered by a dust sheet.

She almost didn't want to go over near the stairs, didn't want to know what lay hidden in the darkness underneath the wooden steps. _What about the others? They don't know about the stranger, Beth. You have got to warn them!_ She sighed, slipping her arms into her jacket as she began to walk at a brisk pace past the stairs, only tilting her head slightly so she could see out of the corner of her eye as she rushed past.

Beth felt relief and self-shame bubble in her throat as she saw the empty space that lay under the grand staircase. Continuing to walk towards the main entrance, Beth chastised herself internally, hands beginning to form fists at her sides as a reaction to her own stupidity. _Really Beth? You really thought that the stranger was hiding under the fucking staircase? What the Hell is wrong with you!? Absolutely no more drinks once-_

"Hannah!"

The sound of Sam's voice, faraway and echo-y throughout the empty living room, calling out her sister's name snapped Beth out of her thoughts. She began to run towards the front door.

* * *

This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to _stop it_ before it happened and she _hadn't._ And now Hannah was out there. Alone. In the forest. At night.

Sam hadn't ever felt more guilty then she did right at that moment, her hands cupped around her mouth as she called out Hannah's name again and again into the all consuming night. She was shivering, but it wasn't just because of the snow swirling around her, soaking into her sweater and sticking to her golden hair. No. Sam was freaking out because of the _wolves._

She had heard plenty of them earlier, the haunting howl of the pack prickling her skin uncomfortably when the friends had first let her in on the prank. It felt almost as if it was nature warning them not to play the prank in the first place, almost like a bad omen of sorts. God, how she wished she had listened to the cries of the wild dogs rather than to the snickerings of the people who betrayed Hannah.

At one point, it almost sounded like screaming was coming from outside the lodge. That noise alone had set Sam's teeth on edge. She didn't want Hannah to meet whatever animal had made that sort of noise.

"What's going on?" Footsteps approached the door and Sam sighed inwardly as her brain registered the person to whom the voice belonged to, "Where's my sister going?"

The others, Jessica shifting so that she was standing directly behind Sam, all shuffled uncomfortably into a semi-circle as Beth burst through the open door of the lodge, her eyes looking frantically out into the darkness and quickly falling back onto Sam for an explanation. Unfortunately, Jessica beat her to the punch. "It's fine. She just can't take a joke," Jess muttered with a dismissive wave of her arm in the direction of the forest, turning her body as if she were going to walk back into the lodge.

Though she hid it well, Sam could tell just by her movements and by how she wouldn't meet Beth's gaze that Jess was worried about Hannah just as much as the rest of the group was. Beth narrowed her eyes and Sam tried to calm what she presumed to be anger in the brunette's eyes by smiling slightly. It seemed to have the opposite effect however; Beth's frown deepened and grew more grim as she looked over each of the group's faces for some sort of clarification.

Emily spoke next, her voice filled with mock sincerity as she called into the forest, "It was just a prank, Han!"

Beth turned towards Emily, her next words filled with a venom that startled Sam, her hand almost unconsciously reaching out to sooth the seething Washington. "What did you DO?" Beth asked angrily, not waiting for a reply before her head swiveled back towards the dark trees that surrounded the mountain, Sam's hand finding her shoulder and rubbing small circles into the brunette's back.

She knew it wasn't much and she knew from past experience that her menstrations would do nothing to relax Beth if she was really agitated, with eyes blazing and fists shaking tightly at her sides, but at least she was _trying_. At least she was doing _something_. Honestly, Sam just wanted to run into the forest and go find Hannah herself. But… That was unrealistic.

She knew the mountain well enough, from all the sleepovers she had had with Josh, Beth, Hannah, and Chris from many years ago plus all the times the Washingtons decided to throw a random party in celebration for something or another, but she didn't _know _it like Hannah did. At best, she'd probably get lost. At worst…

Sam's hand tightened on Beth's shoulder when she saw Mike open his mouth to say something, sharply shaking her head in his direction as a silent command to not say what he was about to. He obviously wasn't paying attention.

"We were just messing around, Beth. It wasn't serious!"

"YOU JERKS!" Sam felt her hand get ripped from Beth's shoulder. She took a step forward to try and reclaim it, to continue to try and calm down her girlfriend, but… _Shit._

"Hannah! HANNAH!" The howling wind soon knocked away all the possible words that Beth might have said, her pink jacket disappearing into the blizzard as Sam stared at her retreating form with a grief stricken look upon her face. _Shit. Shit. SHIT!_

"So… Should we go after her?" Mike's question was directed at the remaining friends behind Sam, all but Emily having some look of remorse written across their faces. Ash looked pale and wouldn't stop rubbing her left arm with her right hand, Matt had a broken look on his face, and Jessica kept pulling on the bottom of her flaring skirt as she bit her lip. Even Mike himself looked a little torn up as his eyes fell back onto the trees in front of them.

And Sam… Well, she felt like she was going to be sick. She was sure her face more or less resembled the same feeling.

"You know, I kinda think you're the last person she wants to see right now, Mike." Her voice came out softer than she originally intended it to be, but the hardness behind the words were crystal clear to the group. And, with one final look at Mike's reddening face, Sam turned back towards the forest and started running.

* * *

It was cold. It was so _fucking _cold.

_How could she be so stupid?_

_How could she have not seen what was happening?_

Hannah tightened her arms around her torso, warming and comforting herself at the same time, as she continued to trudge through the blizzard. Her lips were already beginning to dry up and crack though she had only been out there for a mesly five minutes or so. Her glasses were cold to the touch as she slid them up her nose, her eyes looking at the snow drifts under her feet and at the trail of footprints that she had left behind. They were quickly swept away when a gust of wind sailed through the dark trees.

She had stupidly forgotten her coat at the lodge in her haste to leave the rapidly shrinking building, the humiliation of being topless in front of all of her friends (_Friends, Hannah?)_ all but leaving her with the urge to run that she just couldn't ignore. She choked back a sob, her hands flying out to her sides to steady herself as she slipped on the icy ground.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

CRACK

Hannah looked quickly over her right shoulder, her arms once again wrapping herself into a warm hug as her brown eyes scanned between the dark trees anxiously. The lodge had been reduced to nothing but twinkling little lights glowing in the distance, shrouded even further as thick snowflakes stormed across the mountain landscape from the sky above. Hannah could see her breath appear in little wisps in front of her face, her right arm hanging limply at her side when no figure appeared that could have caused the cracking noise.

Looking for a few seconds more, her breathing sounding like thunder in her frostbitten ears, she brushed a lock of brown hair out of her damp face and turned back towards the forest, intending to walk all the way to the cabin which sat on the other end of the mountain. It would be cold, as the heat _still_ hadn't been installed, but it was better than spending the night in a lodge full of people who had humiliated her.

She whimpered softly as she began to walk slowly through the growing snow drifts once again, tears beginning to drip steadily down her cheeks and fall soundlessly to the ground. "I'm such an idiot," she whispered, her voice cracking as she stepped carefully over a fallen tree that lay in the middle of the path. Hannah let out a cry as she shook from the cold, her hands forming fists at her sides. Her nails bit into her palms as she turned her head to the sky and screamed, "I'm so dumb!"

Hannah howled with anguish as she sank slowly to her knees and placed both hands onto the ground, her fingers spread wide and her hair brushing the top of the snow as her body shook with sobs ripping through her body. She wanted the mountain to swallow her whole and to keep her safe as the world slowly continued to turn around her. She felt like burying herself alive and letting the snow slowly cover her body piece by piece until she had disappeared completely. The tears were causing mascara stains to appear on her cheeks and were leaving black marks in the snow as she choked out between sobs, "_Why did they do that to me?!_"

_Jess, Emily, Matt… Mike. They pranked her. They did. This wasn't a dream, This wasn't a weird hallucination. This was real. They fucking __**pranked**_ _her._

A shriek to Hannah's left almost caused her to jump out of her skin, her head whipping up quickly to see something move out of the corner of her eye. Her breathing hitched as she rocked back onto her heels, her hands leaving indents in the snow as she whipped them slowly on her jeans. She could see it's shadow-like form hanging from a tree. _Wha-?_ Another scream, this one coming from the Washington herself, was heard as a plume of fire erupted around the figure, highlighting it's peeling skin and grotesque features before it collapsed to the snowy ground.

Hannah jumped to her feet, her heart beating wildly in her chest as she quickly turned away from the burnt carnage in front of her, a few, "Holy shitshitshitshit!"s escaping her lips as she tripped over the log she had previously walked over and landed solidly on her butt and right leg.

Gasps erratically left her lips as she scooted back a few feet using her legs as leverage until she quickly tried to stand again and gasped out when a shooting pain appeared in her leg. "Shitshitholyfuck!" she moaned as she tried once again to stand, her hands bracing her knee as she got her footing. It hurt like Hell, but the image of a figure, masked and holding what appeared to be a flamethrower, emerging through the smoke and lingering flames, motivated her to stand.

Hannah glanced frequently over her shoulder as she hobbled down the path back towards the lodge, small whimpers catching in her throat as she tried not to grunt in pain because of her leg. _Not the lodge, not the lodge Han!_ Even with terror thrumming through her veins, a small, irrational part of her brain refused to let her forget what her supposed _friends_ had done to her. She couldn't go back to the lodge just yet, even with a crazed flame wielding maniac chasing her down. _Then where are you going to go? The cabin is on the other side of the mo-_

_The shed._ The answer hit her like a bolt of lightning and a semi-smile crossed her tanned features. Hannah looked at the lodge lights one last time, banishing all thoughts of her worried friends within, and veered off the path and into the trees to her left. _Yeah, that's what she'll do. Stay in the shed until dawn and pray that the flame wielder didn't find her first._

At one point, not far into the woods, she thought she heard someone call her name. She didn't look back.

* * *

She was lost. Hopelessly, terrifyingly lost. But she kept running anyway, the wind whipping across her cold cheeks and almost blowing her white beanie right off of her head. Beth huffed, the brief puff of vapor exploding in front of her face as she leapt over a fallen tree that lay in the middle of the path. "Oh shit," Beth breathed out as she halted at the edge of a rickety old staircase leading down a small cliff face. She had to stop quickly to prevent herself from tumbling over the side.

"Hannah!" Beth cupped her hands around her mouth as she hollered her sister's name, hoping that the echo from her hands would somehow reverberate farther into the woods and her sister would come running back from wherever she had run to. No such luck. "Fuck!" Beth swore as she tore down the old steps to her right, her hand catching on the railing and giving her a small splinter at the bottom.

As soon as her feet hit the snowy Earth, Beth began running once again, her hands pumping steadily at her sides and face pulled into a terrified expression. _Oh God, what if something had happened to her? She shouldn't have been able to run this far ahead in such a short period of time! _

Her breaths were steadily becoming gasps the longer she ran and soon Beth had to resort to jogging so she could breath easier. The grey gloom of the forest sent shivers down her spine as she pulled the frosty air into her lungs, trying her hardest to not let her brain journey to all the terrible things that could have happened to her sister. _Maybe all those late nights watching horror flicks with Josh and Hannah hadn't been the best of ideas…_

Beth stopped abruptly, noticing with disdain that the path split into two right before her eyes. She snapped her head to the right as the cry of a crow resounded from the path, her mind momentarily shutting down before starting back up again as it registered the sound. "Only a bird. It's only a fucking bird," Beth breathed as she looked back towards the left path, the pathway that the footprints she had been following this whole time led down.

It was absolutely a no brainer the youngest Washington thought as she jogged down the left pathway, careful not to tread on the footprints she had been so carefully following this whole time. Beth's head was beginning to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen and her teeth began to chatter as she continued solemnly down the path, stopping only when a small group of reindeer stood serenely in the path.

She took a step forward and then another, hoping to scare the reindeer off without having to actually run into the middle of the wild beasts. But her patience quickly ran out, the fear of her sister being hurt outweighing her own possible injury due to disturbing the animals, and she ran right next to the closest deer. It startled and ran into the forest to the right, it's friends following quickly behind and disappearing into the snow storm alongside their leader.

"JESUS fuck shit!" Beth exclaimed as a cracking noise was heard from behind, her head whipping around so quickly she felt her neck crack from being stretched in an obscene way. She turned her body, pivoting with her left foot, and looked into the darkness that was behind her, her mind racing a million miles a minute as the possibilities of what that noise could be raced through her head. _Reindeer?_

"Hannah?" The name tumbled from her lips softly, almost as if she was afraid to speak it any louder. Which she _was_. She didn't exactly know why; The forest was just giving her a dark vibe. It felt sick. "Damn it, Hannah," Beth muttered as she grimaced at her own cowardice and turned back towards the footprints that lay in front of her. _Why was she so jittery?_

She took a few steps forward, her eyes gazing across the ridges of the rocky and icy tundra that surrounded her. "Where are you?"

"Beth!" The brunette screamed, a sound so raw it burnt her throat, as a hand wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her sharply backwards, her hands flying out in front of her as she felt herself falling towards the ground.

* * *

"Holy shit!" Sam exclaimed as she braced herself to catch Beth as she fell backwards, her ears ringing from the bloodcurdling scream that the brunette had just admitted. _Shit! She didn't mean to pull that hard! _

She quickly encircled the Washington's waist with her arms and pulled her sharply to her chest, her legs quaking as Beth's added weight almost made her topple over as well. The ice under her boots added to the struggle of keeping them both upright.

Fat snowflakes continued to fall around the two girls, the sticky flakes weaving themselves into their hair and coating Sam's sweater in a white blanket. So serene was the forest that in any other scenario, it could have been romantic. That is, if Beth hadn't quickly raised both of her arms and ripped herself from Sam's grasp, causing the blonde to stumble backwards with her arms pinwheeling at her sides.

This time, with the extra shove from the brunette, Sam did fall to the ground, the thin layer of snow on said **rocky** ground doing nothing to cushion her butt as she landed. "Ow!" Sam yelped as she landed with a thud, one of the rocks painfully jutting into her ass and causing her to groan in pain. Recovering quickly, she placed her raw hands on the ground to give herself leverage so she could stand, her boots scrambling for purchase on the icy tundra.

Raising her head, Sam saw Beth twist around quickly, her hands curled into tight fists and raised to her face as if to defend herself from an attacker. Sam watched, opening her mouth so she could fill her lungs with oxygen, as Beth's face transformed from one of anger to one of confusion before her eyes. A feeling of guilt slowly began crawling up the blonde's back and caused goosebumps to appear on her arms. _She really hadn't meant to scare Beth._

Another moment passed and slowly the Washington lowered her hands and, as if noticing who it was for the first time, turned towards her girlfriend with flushed cheeks and wide eyes. Sam blushed and ducked her head, the guilty feeling intensifying and pooling into her stomach. "Sorry," she said as she sheepishly tried to stand again and her feet yet again failed to get any purchase on the ground. She heard the crunching of footsteps and soon a tanned hand was held under her nose, her mouth forming a weak smile as she gladly took it.

Sam felt the palm of her hand scratch the ice painfully as she was hauled to her feet, a "whoa!" followed by a nervous laugh filling the air when she once again stood on two feet. _How the Hell was Beth so friggin' strong? Not that she's complaining… She was just a curious..._ The warmth from Beth's hand felt nice against the cold night air and Sam locked their fingers together as she brushed some snow off her shoulder with her free hand.

"I scared you pretty bad, didn't I?" Sam said in a hushed tone, her blue eyes meeting grey as she took Beth's other hand and squeezed, "Sorry about that. I should've known better."

"Yeah, you should have," Beth replied breezily, squeezing Sam's hand back. Her intense eyes bore into Sam's for a moment too long and Sam shifted uncomfortably as she stood. _Was she still mad at her? _Eventually, she cocked a hip and raised a brow, saying with a quirk of a smile,"Leave the scaring to the pros, Sammy. You had the right idea, but your cute face ruined the mystic."

"Oh? And what makes you think I was trying to scare you?"

"Ummm," Beth drew out the word as she unlinked their fingers and took a step back, her head swiveling to the ground in front of her. Sam furrowed her brows as she stepped forward, looking at the footprints that the brunette was inspecting underneath the newest layer of snow, "Spooky forest with a missing sister in the middle of the night after a bunch of dickheads decided to play a dumb prank on said sister even after my family invited them up here for a vacation? That checks off a lot of horror movie must haves right there and we haven't even _started _talking about the wolves that could be out here, waiting to tear us limb from limb at the first sight of blood."

"...Alright. I see your point," Sam replied as she placed her hands on her knees, so that she could inspect the footprints closer. _They look too _big _to be Hannah's… She's a size 8 women's. These gotta be closer to a size 6 men's._ Sam asked her next question with a quiet voice, hoping not to spook Beth again with her next words though fear began to edge into her bones, "You sure these are Hannah's?"

"Positive." Beth's voice, firm and sure of itself, almost calmed the small amount of panic that had begun to form in place of guilt in Sam's stomach. Almost. She straightened as Beth pivoated towards the direction in which the tracks led, her hands clenched at her sides as she began to walk/jog deeper into the forest. Sam stood in silent contemplation for a moment, debating whether or not she should follow Beth or return to the lodge to get the others so that they could help look too.

After she had walked what seemed to be a couple feet, Beth stopped and turned around, her eyes narrowing as she demanded, "Well? Are you coming or are you staying?"

Making up her mind, biting her lip as she looked back at the way she come one last time, Sam walked briskly over to her irritated girlfriend, who watched until the blonde was standing directly beside her before she started walking once more. Tension hung in the air as Sam followed, brushing a strand of her hair that had fallen out of it's bun out of her face. It was an awkward moment, that was for certain. Beth had _never_ been so callus before, even when they had argued over stupid things like where they wanted to go out to eat or who would have to do the dishes after a night in.

Something was definitely wrong.

After walking for a bit, the duo reached a small drop off caused by a large rock that jutted out of the side of the mountain. It wasn't high enough where if you fell you could seriously hurt yourself, but it wasn't exactly the safest ledge out there. Beth was already sitting at it's edge by the time Sam arrived, and she watched as the brunette carefully vaulted herself down the cliff's side. She heard a thud and a soft, "Oof," as she presumed Beth landed, shuffling quickly through the snow to peer over the ledge just to make sure Beth was okay.

She heard the Washington breath out heavily and saw her reach into her right jacket pocket, pulling out her ipod and turning on the flashlight app. Sam breathed out a sigh of relief, her warm breath mingling with the cold air and causing vapor to appear in front of her face. _Thank God. I can't handle one missing Washington and one potentially broken Washington tonight._ "Sam!" Beth called up the ledge, startling Sam so much that she almost fell over the side of the drop off.

Steadying herself, Sam bent down and quickly slid across the ground until her legs were over the side of the ledge. "Yep! Watch out! I'm coming down!" Sam called back as she slid the rest of the way over the drop off, her body tensing as she felt herself falling towards the ground. She landed with both her legs, allowing them to take most of the shock from the hard landing, and straightened quickly as she examined the forest in front of her, her blue eyes dilating so she could see clearer into the darkness. She saw Beth glance at her as she watched the shadows shift next to their respective trees and listened to the wind howl and shriek into the night out of the corner of her eye.

Then the youngest Washington shook her head, a quick shake that would have been unnoticeable if Sam had been any farther away, and headed off down the now mostly obscured path, Sam watching as her girlfriend marched down the path with a fake confidence. "Hannah!" Beth called again, an exasperated tone in her voice and her body highlighted by the haunting light coming from her phone.

"Hannah!" Sam called as well as she quickly ran after Beth, her snow boots crunching into the snow and brambles that were in her way, "God Hannah, Where are you?!"

Sam caught up with Beth and quickly looped her arm around the brunettes, hoping to share some warmth from Beth and because she was feeling anxious about the whole scenario. _Hannah running off into the woods at night? That was probably not the safest choic-_ Her train of thought was quickly stopped as Beth yanked her arm from Sam's grasp and continued onward down the path, not sparing a glance behind her as Sam stopped dead in her tracks.

_What the fuck._

"What's wrong?" The words tumbled naturally from her lips, but they felt foreign and scary on her tongue. She saw Beth stiffen and turn her head slightly to catch Sam's gaze, her right hand, the hand not holding her ipod, tightening into a fist as she did.

"Nothing. I'm fine." The words sounded forced and Sam started to walk again, her mind beginning to swim at the millions of possibilities as to why Beth could be angry with her. She spoke the first one that came to mind, watching as she came up beside Beth and they both began to walk in tandem once more.

"This is about the prank, isn't it?"

"Seriously? I'm fine, Samantha."

_Bingo._

"Look. I know what the guys did back there was really shitty, but…"

"But **what?**" Beth looked at her sharply and swung her right hand at her side, that being Sam's cue to shut up before she got clocked in the face. Not that she would actually punch the blonde, under normal circumstances. She was normally pretty good at controlling her anger. Unfortunately, this was not a normal circumstance. Beth made a face and gestured with her right arm as she waited for Sam to continue, the tension in the air gaining a sharp and bitter atmosphere when she snarled out, "**But what, Samantha?**"

Sam's mouth formed a thin line as she flexed and unflexed her fingers instinctively, reasoning in a calm voice, "But… They didn't know that she was going to run off into the woods. If they had known, maybe they wouldn't have pulled the prank in the first place." She turned to her left to avoid Beth's fuming expression, her eyes dancing across the different adult saplings that grew across the landscape.

She knew she wasn't addressing what she suspected Beth was _really _angry about, but she, at that moment, didn't want to talk about what had happened at the lodge. She just wanted to find Hannah and go back quickly. The woods and the shrieking winds that whistled across the mountain were really starting to freak her out.

"'They?' You make it sound like you weren't involved," Beth said quietly as the beam of light coming from her hand briefly illuminated the rock face that stood to the left of Sam, the brunette's words momentarily leaving the blonde speechless. _Did she really th- Did she _really _think that she had been involved in the prank?_

Sam huffed and looked Beth in the face as the path widened to accommodate a tree that grew in the middle of it. "I tried to stop the prank, Beth. I wasn't involved." Sam tried to keep her voice even as she reasoned with her girlfriend.

"Bullshit," was Beth's snappy reply as she looked Sam in the eyes, her grey eyes shining cold in the midnight gloom.

"It's the truth, Elizabeth. I was trying to WARN Hannah! I searched all of upstairs and called her name a dozen times, but I didn't get to her in time. I found her shocked and on the verge of tears in Mike's guest room and I tried to talk to her, but she ran-"

Beth let out a squeak as a deer jumped across their path, Sam jolting to a halt before she walked into the running animal. She and Beth both stepped backwards as the animal continued into the brush and into the trees to the right, it's labored breathing echoing around them for a few seconds before all was silent again.

Sam recovered before Beth did, looking to where the animal had come from before loosely taking Beth's hand and continuing down the path. To her relief, Beth didn't pull away.

The path narrowed once more as they continued along, their pace quickening after the small fright they had just received. Beth's hand felt sweaty and slick in Sam's own, but she didn't really care at that point. She just wanted to find Hannah and go back to the lodge, where she could talk to Beth in a setting that didn't remind her of **The Cabin in the Woods**. "Hello? Hello?" Beth called into the darkness surrounding them, her voice coming out sharp and fast.

She seemed almost as anxious as Sam felt and Sam squeezed her hand to somewhat comfort her girlfriend. There really were no words that Sam could use to describe how sorry she felt. Even though she knew in her head that she had done all that she could have to prevent Hannah from falling for the dumb prank, her heart was telling her that she could have done more. _She should have called a little bit louder. She should have walked a little bit faster. Fuck, what kind of best friend was she?_

The silence was almost suffocating and yet Sam dared not make a sound. She wanted Beth to talk first because anything that she said would only end up with the two of them fighting once more and them bickering was not going to help Hannah get found. "Hannah, where are you?" She called again, her voice being thrown to the wind as Beth and she continued around the side of a boulder to their left. It was no use… Hannah wouldn't be able to hear them over the howling wind.

A wooden fence cropped up on either side of the path as they continued along, Sam seeing Beth hold her ipod towards one of the sporks driven into the ground with a puzzled expression on her face. "I didn't know these were here," Beth muttered as she unlinked her fingers from Sam's and ran her freed hand over the rotting wood, the blonde herself standing back with her arms crossed over her chest as she danced from foot to foot. _Now she was really starting to get cold._

"Whoa," Sam stated suddenly as her eyes caught something glow in the distance on top of one of rock faces surrounding the path, the distinctive hiss of a machine whirring to life slicing through the wind and causing Sam to lean protectively towards Beth. It disappeared almost as soon as it appeared, but Sam continued to stare at the spot in hopes that it would reappear and she could confirm what she saw.

Beth turned to her with a question written across her features, which Sam briefly acknowledged before turning her attention back to the spot where the glow had appeared. _It almost looked like fire._ "Hmm?" Beth hummed as she stepped towards Sam, her free hand moving to hold Sam's arm with a raised eyebrow, "What is it?"

Shaking her head, Sam gave Beth a small smile and replied, "Nothing. There was nothing."

* * *

She didn't believe her. Not for a second. But Beth let it drop anyway with a quirk of a brow and began to walk again down the path, the nagging sensation that something was wrong growing stronger with every step. She pulled Sam along with her, the blonde stumbling slightly before matching her pace and linking their fingers together again. "Hannah!" Now she was starting to get annoyed. _How far did she fucking run anyway?_ Beth looked briefly down to the footprints that were glaring at her from under her feet. The feeling was getting stronger.

"Beth. I know you don't want to hear this, but I think we might need to turn back," Sam whispered in that extra calm tone of hers. Beth turned her flashlight in the direction of a tall cliff face to her right and not so accidently blinded Sam momentarily in the process. _There was no way in Hell she was going back to the lodge without her sister. Not. A. Chance._ "I don't think she would have ran all the way out here. She might have been upset, but she's not stupid. She knows what could come out at night in a forest like this."

"The footprints say the contrary," Beth countered as she pointed her ipod at the ground for emphasis. Truth be told, she wasn't trying to be snappy at Sam, her sweet, caring, strong Sam. She was just so fucking _angry_ at the situation. _Oh just wait until she got back to the lodge. The others would get a fucking earful and then get their asses kicked off the mountain for the rest of their lives._ "...Sorry. Not trying to be rude, just really focused." It was half of an apology, but she couldn't really muster the strength to say much else at the moment. _She needed to find Hannah._

"I get it. You're freaking out and I'm here to help. We can talk later, alright? Let's… Let's just find Hannah and get the Hell out of here." Sam smiled slightly, her blue eyes almost iridescent in the grey woods and Beth's insides began to feel warm. _Wow._ Beth tried to smile in response and managed only a grimace to which Sam laughed lightly as she raised their conjoined hands to her mouth and kissed them chastely. _How the Hell did she get so lucky?_

Snow blew into their eyes and bit at their cheeks as they continued up the path, Beth feeling somewhat lighter than she had a few seconds prior. _At least Sammy is here._ "Hannah!" Sam called into the darkness, her grip on Beth's hand growing stronger when nobody responded. Beth sighed and blinked snowflakes off of her eyelashes. _This was going to be a long, fucking night._

Suddenly, appearing as if by magic, a burst of flames erupted from the top of a cliff face directly to the left of the path, startling Beth as she stepped backwards with a yelp. The flames were so close that she could feel their heat radiate onto her skin. She instinctively pulled Sam closer to her, her hand leaving Sam's and instead grasping onto the entirety of the blonde's arm.

The flames disappeared almost as suddenly as they appeared, but the image of the fire that had blazed just a mere feet from where they stood still danced behind her eyelids. "What the Hell was that?" Beth asked plainly as she unlatched herself from Sam's side to turn to look at the blonde. Sam looked just as shocked as she did and immediately Beth understood. It was the same look Sam had made earlier when she said she hadn't seen anything near the broken old fence. "Was that what you saw earlier?!" She sounded like she was accusing Sam of something she obviously couldn't control. _It's not like she's a pyromancer or anything._

Her nerves were shot and Beth didn't know how much patience she had left for her sister. She loved her, sure. But almost getting **burnt to a crisp** really wasn't helping her mood and Sam was right. _Why would Hannah run all this way from the lodge? That wouldn't be like her at all. She was always more comfortable near the safety of the building, even during the daytime._ _But the footprints… If they weren't Hannah's… Then whose were they?_ Lost in her own thoughts, she didn't feel Sam begin to pull her forward, her feet dragging in the now ankle-deep snow, by her right arm. "Come on. We'll walk for another five minutes and then I say we head back to the lodge. Agreed?"

Beth felt numb. _Whose footprints WERE THOSE?_ "Sammy," she started quietly as Sam brushed aside an evergreen limb that hung in the path with her right hand, her slowly bluing lips pursed in concentration. The ipod in Beth's hand felt heavy as her arm slowly fell to her side. _Holy fuck. Holy FUCK._ "Sammy." Beth spoke these words with a hardness in her tone, hoping that her girlfriend would get the message and NOT GO ANY FARTHER.

"Yeah?" Sam dropped Beth's arm as she paused in the middle of another little alcove in the path, the sides of said path now wide enough that their entire group of friends could stand within it's boundaries without feeling squished. The trees didn't block the sky anymore and the moon, covered partially by a smoky cloud, shone down into the clearing. The wind, however, grew stronger and shrieked louder as it raced between the tree trunks and flew across the little clearing, kicking up more snow as it went.

"The prints?"

Had completely disappeared. They stopped directly in the middle of the pathway and then vanished. There were no shoe prints leading away from the path into the woods, no marks of something dragging the poor owner away. Nothing. They were just **gone.**

Sam looked back towards Beth with a confused look on her face, Beth's own face feeling hot and tense as she looked at the blonde. She zeroed in on the widening of Sam's eyes and on the way her mouth made a O shape as what appeared to be a realization dawned on her. "Maybe the tracks were swept away in the storm," Sam mumbled quietly as she pivoted towards Beth and took both of the brunette's hands in her own, Beth slowly beginning to shake her head as she took a step back.

_Something wasn't right. THIS wasn't right. They needed to leave. NOW._

"Right… Right," Sam began as she looked once again behind her at the remaining tracks that lay imprinted in the snow, the wind blowing away more and more of their route back to the lodge as time wore on. The wind continued to scream.

"I think it's time we go back to the lodge." Beth's voice felt tight in her throat as she forced the words out, her upper torso constricting the air around her ribcage so that every breath was a struggle. She knew it was all in her head, the fear of being stranded in the darkness finally beginning to eb at her mental state. And Hannah! _Oh poor naive Hannah! What happens if she gets stranded out here when they turned back?_

What the Hell was happening to her? Something was very, VERY wrong.

Sam, ever the Hero, began to briskly walk back the way they had come, pulling along Beth by her right hand as she watched the ground for the rapidly disappearing footprints. Brushing the branch out of her way again, Beth heard the blonde mutter, "Alright... Take it easy, Sam. It's all good. The woods are just starting to freak you out, that's all it is." Beth matched pace with Sam, her face lined with a grim determination to make it back to the lodge before all the tracks disappeared.

"Everything is okay. It's totally fine. It's TOTALLY fine, right Beth?"

"Yeah, Sammy."

"Yep. Everything's alright. We're gonna be fine," Sam turned her head upwards and backwards to give Beth a reassuring smile, to which the brunette returned readily. Luckily, Sam didn't see her face fall once her girlfriend had turned back around. "We're gonna make it back to the lodge and then we're gonna rest for a few hours before we go back out to find Hannah. Once the storm dies down, that's the plan. Beth? That sound good?"

Something was very, very, VERY wrong.

The wind SCRRRREEEEEEEAMED at them.

The duo froze.

"Sam?"

"Beth?"

Something was moving in the shadows. It was watching them, Beth could tell. She could see the grey light shining from it's eyes. And, even from where she stood, she could seen the glimmering teeth that were shining from the mouth of the animal.

Beth stepped backwards, her hand holding Sam's in a death like grip. Sam stepped with her, the red from her sweater seeming impossibly bright in the moon's glow. Beth tried to will herself to breath, but her lungs wouldn't cooperate.

_RUN._

The snow obscured enough of Beth's vision so that she didn't know exactly what the animal was, but it's shadow provided enough info to fuel her nightmares for the rest of her life. She took another step and then another, the animal getting closer and more bold with every move she made. They were going to have to,

"Run."

And so they did, their snow covered boots dragging through the snow and causing them to go slower than they needed to go. And that was very BAD.

Beth looked back only once as Sam plowed ahead of her, her legs moving at lightning speed as she swerved around another tree that grew in the center of the path. The brunette immediately regretted her decision. _That THING was enormous. _

Sam slipped only once on the ice slicked ground, right as they were passing through an old bridgeway that was built over a small river. She landed gracelessly onto the old wooden planks, the brunette noticing as she sprang to her feet a small limp that had appeared in her right leg.

The fire appeared only once more behind them as they continued to run, Beth's legs beginning to burn from the effort of sprinting so far so fast. She felt the heat more than she saw it, but the clanking of somebody running with what she now presumed to be a flamethrower flowed into her veins and propelled her to run faster.

_FASTERFASTERFASTER_

The wind whistled and cracked in her ears and still she ran. The beanie that she had so carefully put on earlier that evening flew carelessly of her head and still she ran. Her legs were literally on fire as the muscles tensed and untensed from the copious amounts of running and _still_ she ran.

_FASTERFASTERFAS-_

Sam stopped dead in her tracks and, as a result, so did Beth. There was a cliff. Not a drop off. A _cliff_. The kind of cliff where if you fell off of it, there was no going back.

"Jesus Christ!"

SCREAM

This one didn't sound like an animal. It sounded human.

"No! Shit! No! GET BACK!"

Tears began to prick in Beth's eyes as the animal appeared again, her hand reaching out to Sam's instinctively and lacing their fingers together. They were backed into a corner. No escape.

Beth looked briefly at Sam, who's icy eyes were widened in fear and watered down with tears of her own. She looked back at Beth just as Beth turned away, huddling closer to her girlfriend and spreading her warmth to Beth's left side.

She squeezed her fingers.

"FUCK!"

"NO!"

The object the animal had thrown, a big heavy object that sported a trench coat and a large flamethrower on it's back, hit the two girls at the same time.

Beth cursed and Sam cried as they were dragged over the side of the cliff, their calls echoing about the mountain as the wind howled and swept snow around them.

They fell.

And then there was no going back.

* * *

It was dawn when Hannah emerged from her sleeping place inside the shed. Not that she slept any that night, visions of men with flamethrowers and monsters with torn faces haunting her whenever she closed her eyes. _God, this must be how Josh feels whenever he can't sleep. It's terrible!_

_Josh. Beth. Oh God, they must be freaking out right now!_

Hannah fiddled with the lock on the door of the shed, her cold hands having a hard time working open the cool metal. She huffed with annoyance when she couldn't get it the first time, the words, "Come on, Han. You did it last night, half panicked and mentally distraught. You can do it now," escaping her lips as she pulled hard on the sliding lock until it finally SQUEAKED open.

Careful not to put too much pressure on her leg, Hannah began the short trek from the shed to the lodge. The early morning sun cast a beautiful light across the newly fallen snow that lay on the icy ground and Hannah breathed a sigh of relief. The shadows of the trees seeming natural and peaceful in the sun's golden rays, a sharp contrast of the dark and threatening shadows the same trees had created last night.

The lodge soon came into view, the lights near the back door long since shut off and the shutters on the windows all opened up wide to greet the new day. The house seemed to welcome Hannah, lulling her into an almost nostalgic state as many memories came flooding back to her all at once.

_The first time she had come up the mountain and seen the lodge with her father, mother, Beth, and Josh. She remembered the awestruck feeling she got after seeing how large the cabin actually was, inside and out._

_The time when she and Sam had decided to paint the outside walls of the house purple because, "Brown is too ugly for such a pretty house!" Her parents had NOT been pleased about that one._

_The times during the summer where her siblings and Sam and Chris would have water balloon fights and Josh would always win cause he cheated (she didn't know if this was actually the case or if it was just her 13 year-old mind remembering things differently)._

_The time she saw Beth and Sam making out in the outside swing chair in the summer AND the winter, even though it was below forty degrees outside and their lips almost got frozen together._

_The first time that Josh had invited other people up the mountain besides Sam and Chris only two years ago, the giddy feeling of having more people to share Mt. Washington with both exciting and frightening her._

_The first time she had had a real conversation with Mike…_

Her thoughts stopped as she reached the bottom of the steps that led to the backdoor entrance to the lodge. Her mind returned to last night and to why she had been out in the shed in the first place. And to all of her hopes and dreams that laid shattered at her feet. She slowly ascended the steps, her lips pressed into a thin line as she thought about turning back around and returning to the shed.

_Those aren't your friends._

_Those aren't your friends._

_DON'T GO IN._

The planks that covered the deck creaked as Hannah slowly made her way to the door, her right hand clenching and unclenching at her side and her other hand wiping away the sweat on her palm onto her jeans. She raised her hand to grasp at the doorknob, the cool metal burning her warm palm as she did so, and twisted the handle, pushing the door inward as she did.

A blast of heat hit her body as the door opened, the sunlight behind her filling the small hallway and brightening her mood ever so slightly. It was nice to be able to return to what she considered to be her safe space, that being the lodge itself, after a terrible night in the terrifying woods.

Hannah stepped into the hallway, her right leg beginning to sting from being used for too long, and walked slowly down the right end of the hallway, using her hand as a support on the whitewashed wall as she did. At the end of the hall, her heart hammering a wild rhythm in her chest, Hannah could hear hushed whispers behind the two wooden doors in front of her. They sounded panicked.

_Oh God, oh God. I can't go in there! I just can't! I should just turn around and-_

"They've been out there for almost five hours, Em. We should probably go look for them." Hannah's throat constricted as she recognized the voice. _Mike_. God. The name alone made her feel nauseous.

"Michael, the police are on their way and Josh is already out there looking for them. There's no need for all of us to go out into the freezing cold when we could just sit here by the fire and wait for the proper authorities to come."

_Emily._

Her eyes widening and her jaw falling slack, Hannah's mind briefly flashed white as she replayed what Emily had just said in her head once, then twice, then three times over. _She… She did NOT just say that, did she? What the Hell did she mean by them? Oh my God… Wha- What a bitch!_ Huffing angrily, Hannah grabbed the door handle in front of her and slammed the door open, almost falling onto her face in the process due to the momentum of her push.

Five people were sitting and standing in the small kitchen/living room, which was on the opposite end of the lodge from the main kitchen, in front of her, all six of their faces snapping towards the noise as the Washington stumbled in. Ashley, her red hair hanging in front of her face like a curtain from her spot on the couch, jolted from her position and let out a squeak at the sound, but soon fell silent when she saw who it was.

Matt was silently staring at Hannah with his muscled arms hanging limply at his sides, his intense brown eyes making her feel uncomfortable until she looked away, unable to take the burning stare any longer. Emily, her short black hair less tidy then it normally was, raised a brow and pointedly looked at Mike, an expression that read See?-She's-Fine written across her face. Jessica and Ashley were sitting on the couch, the blonde looking off into space with an uneasy look on her face as Ashley bit her lip and looked away from the brunette.

And Mike… Well. He had an embarrassed look on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand, his gaze on the floor instead of on the girl in front of him. Hannah also noted that he was sporting a new black eye and a split lip. She couldn't help but feel a little happy about that. _Serves him fucking right._

Hannah took a deep breath, pushing her glasses up her nose with her right hand as she did. She brushed down the front of her brown button up with her left hand, subconsciously checking to make sure all the buttons were closed up. She opened her mouth to say something, but Mike beat her to the punch. "Look Han, we're really sorry we made you run out into the storm in the middle of the night. The prank… was a total dick move on my part and-"

"Just shut the fuck up, Mike." Hannah's eyes snapped from Mike, his lips forming a tight line as he was cut off, and turned to see that there were in fact _six _people in the small kitchen. Chris, who was sullenly leaning against the bar countertop with his arms crossed, continued with a note of exasperation in his voice, "I think you've already said enough tonight, man. Can't you see she's upset? Just leave her alone."

"Well, that was why I was apologising _Christopher_. I was trying to make amends in light of a bad situation," Mike snarked in return, turning his body right so that he could look at the blond directly. He glared at Chris for a second, the latter's blue eyes staring back defiantly in retaliation, until he turned back towards Hannah, her stomach tensing as she awaited what he had to say.

"I fucked up," Mike said plainly, gesturing to himself with both of his hands, "And I'm sorry. There, plain and simple. I'm sorry we played the prank on you. It wasn't the right thing to do. Will you forgive us?" Hannah's heart sank at Mike's words. _Lamest apology ever. It sounds like someone forced him to say that._ The Washington shuffled her feet, her right hand covering her butterfly tattoo self-consciously, as she mulled over the apology. _The right thing to do was to forgive. Forgive and forget. It's not like anyone got hurt. It was just a stupid prank, like Sammy said. That's just what friends do, right?_

_Right?_

* * *

It wasn't until much later, when she was hugging her brother firmly around the waist with her head buried in his shoulder, the words that the police officer spoke sounding far off and full of apology, her "friends" all standing awkwardly in their own little circle of comfort and casting sorrowful glances in her direction, did Hannah actually realize what had just happened. _I ran off, Beth and Sam followed, and now they were both "missing", most likely dead._

She wanted to cry, but the tears felt lodged in her chest as the guilt crushed her from the inside out. The police had said she wasn't entirely to blame, that the others should have known better than to play the joke on her and that her reaction was understandable if not a bit extreme given the nature of the prank, but Hannah didn't care. Josh and Chris had comforted her, let her cry on their shoulders, and told her it wasn't her fault, even though Hannah knew deep down it _was_. Even Matt had come over and, though it was quick, hugged her and apologised many times with shaking hands and shuffling feet.

Mike, Em, and Jess wouldn't look at her. Ashley held her hand, squeezing every once and a while with wide, haunted eyes.

And Hannah knew in that moment she wouldn't be able to forget what had happened the previous night. She could forgive, sure. But forget?

Never.


	2. Where The Cold Winds Blow

"**Today is the one year anniversary of the dreadful tragedy that took place on Mt. Washington. Annie Kline, who ~**_**BUZZ~ **_ **-in charge of the investigation."**

"**Thanks for having me, Marty."**

"**There's an update on Beth Washington and Samantha Giddings, the two girls ~**_**BUZZ~ **_**-o are still missing."**

"**One year ago tonight, the two girls left the safety of the Washington lodge and headed out into a snowstor- ~BUZZ~."**

"**Foul play?"**

"**Not officially, no. There is one individual we are considering as a person of interest, but his whereabouts are currently unknown** _**~BUZZ~**_**. -has an ~BUZZ~ -teresting history with the Washington family. He had warned them against pursuing their construction project and claimed the land was sacred to his forefathers."**

"**You know, there still is the old sanitorium on the mountain. Could he be hiding there?"**

"**My officers did search the grounds, but **_**~BUZZZZ~ **_**the girls themselves couldn't have made it that far."**

"**Something about that mountain just seems to breed tragic events..."**

"**More than you know, Marty."**

"**Well, thank you for joining us Anne and ~BUZZ~ the Washingtons and Giddings families willing to talk with us tonight ~BUZZ~ and especially to their children, Hannah and Josh Washington, on this, the anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of Beth Washington and Samantha Giddings."**

Hannah gripped the steering wheel tighter as the radio show ended, her car slipping and sliding on the snow covered road as she slowly made her way back to the place she swore she would never return to. _Never, ever, in a million years._ And yet, here she was, praying that her car wouldn't fly off one of the cliff faces and wishing she was anywhere but on Mt. Washington.

She removed her right hand from the steering wheel and flicked to a different radio channel, trying to keep her mind off of the anxiety and bile slowly creeping up her throat. _Oh God, why did I let Josh plan this fucking trip? Why the __**fuck**_ _did I do that?! I'm such an idiot! I can't do this! _

The brunette rounded a curve, her right hand flying back to her steering wheel to steady the vehicle and momentarily stopping her thoughts, as the car continued it's spiral up into the thick woods of Blackwood Pines, the evergreens and pines occasionally reaching out onto the already obstructed road and dropping large globs of snow onto the silver Saturn.

Once the road had leveled out, the bumps and ditches that littered the mountain pass becoming less of a hindrance for her car, Hannah's hand found it's way back to the radio as she breathed in slowly through her mouth in an attempt to calm down. "It's alright, Han. Everything's okay. Dr. Hill is right and so is Josh. Nobody's gonna get you when you go back up there. It's just for closure, so don't panic. All of your friends (_friends?_) will be there and you'll have a great time," the brunette rambled, her eyes flashing as she watched the forest speed past her on both sides of the car while she drove.

The closer she got to the entrance to Blackwood Pines, the more prominent the static of the radio became, the steady hissing from her radio beginning to form a small migraine at the front of her skull.

She chanced a look at said device when the static finally became unbearable, a sigh escaping her lips as she shut off the radio for good with the push of a button and placed both of her hands back onto the steering wheel, blinking her brown eyes slowly as she watched the icy road ahead. _No music…_ Hannah grabbed her phone from it's place in her cup holder with her right hand to quickly look at the bars of service at the top left of the screen. Her hand was quivering when she dropped the phone back into the cup holder with a THUNK! _And... no service. _

_We truly are alone up here, aren't we?_

* * *

The sign looked like it was painted with blood in the darkness, the words **BLACKWOOD PINES **standing out against the faded wood that they had been carved into with a sinister detail.

Hannah shivered as she stared, her glasses collecting snowflakes on the lens' as she hoisted her bag higher onto her shoulder with a shrug. The sign was hung above the path that lead to the cable car station, illuminated only by a tiny light that was attached to a small shed to the left side of the path. Much to Hannah's dismay, the light didn't extend much further than that, leaving the rest of the path in a complete darkness that she couldn't see that far into.

_If only I had brought a flashlight_.

Taking off her glasses and wiping them quickly on the hem of her sweatshirt to remove the melted flakes, Hannah placed the black lens' back on her face and went to open the fence that stood as a barrierior between her and the way to the station. The wood of the fence felt coarse against her palm and it squeaked as it was pushed open, piercing the near silence of the forest surrounding her with surprising clarity. Hannah winced and tried to close the fence as quietly as possible after she had stepped through.

Hannah Washington, Aged 19

Sam's Best Friend

Shy

Sensitive

Fearful

Birch trees surrounded Hannah as she continued down the path, her snow boots crunching noisily in the freshly fallen snow and echoing around the boulders that closed in the pathway. The wind was beginning to pick up, whistling softly through the birches and throwing small flecks of snow into the face of the brunette. Hannah raised the hood of her sweatshirt and stuffed both of her hands into her pockets as she trudged on.

_CRACK!_

Hannah stopped and clenched her hands into fists in her pockets, her legs, for a moment, feeling like lead as she recalled what she had seen the last time she had been up here. _Fire, monsters, flamethrowers. _"...hello?" Hannah whispered as she strained her ears and listened for any further noise. She turned back towards the way she had come from and thought maybe she should run back to the safety of her car and drive back down the mountain to avoid any sort of encounter with anyone (_Or anyTHING)_. The brunette swallowed thickly as she whispered again, "Is anyone there?"

She waited again, her nose burning from the freezing temperatures, and prayed nothing would come screaming out of the woods and attack her. _Like something almost had last year. _A minute passed and not another sound was heard, relief warming her veins as she turned her back to the small light from the shed and continued down the path.

Blackwood Pines was covered in a grey blanket of fog and snow, the density of the clouds causing the ghostly mist to lay low to the ground and shroud the roots and rocks from Hannah's view. Crows every once and awhile cawed and took flight over Hannah's head as she walked, startling her only once before she got used to the shrill noise. She shivered once more. _It feels a lot colder this year than it did last year. Maybe it's just the time of year that we decided to come up._

_Maybe it's because two of the most important people in my life died last year._

Goosebumps rose on the brunette's arms and legs as she rounded a corner on the twisting path and saw a steel, iron gate come into view through the midnight haze, a small amount of joy filling her chest as she recalled how close the cable car station was now that she had reached the gate. The closer she got to the iron gate however, the more apparent it became that something was wrong. Hannah frowned.

_Why the Hell isn't the gate unlocked yet?_ As Hannah approached the gate, a crow that had been sitting on top of the pedestal that held the iron barrier up flew away with a caw of indignation in Hannah's direction. But she didn't really notice. She was far too busy examining the piece of paper that was taped hape hazardously to the lock and chain that held the two gates together.

She reached out and yanked the paper off of the gate, groaning as she read the sheet and brushed her bangs out of her eyes with her left hand.

"The gate's busted, Climb over! - Chris"

"Agh, What?" Hannah said with a roll of her eyes as she flipped the paper over and read the conversation her brother had had with Chris about how to get up to the mountain via email to cool her irritation (_Really? It's been ten years and you _STILL _don't know how to get up here?_). Hannah crumpled the paper into a ball, shoved it into her pocket, and then shook the gate a few times to make sure it was actually broken and not just frozen shut.

"Dammit," Hannah muttered as she flicked the lock with annoyance and stepped back to survey the area for an easy way over the fence. Her brown eyes landed on a snow mound about as tall as the gate that lay directly to her left. The Washington moved quickly over to the mound, her boots sinking heavily into the accumulated snow as she climbed the small mountain. Her hands, now removed from the warmth of her fuzzy pockets, reached out to her sides so she wouldn't lose balance and fall backwards onto the frozen path and possibly break something.

Midway up the makeshift mountain and a sinkhole, created by snow that had not be compacted enough, appeared, the young girl yelping when her right leg sank to her hip and threw her off balance. She pitched forward dangerously, her leg (My _BAD leg)_ twisting at an awkward and painful angle, and flung out both of her hands to stop herself from face planting into the snow.

She didn't succeed in that aspect. "Fuck!" Hannah cursed when she had resurfaced from the snow, her glasses hoarding clumps of snow in between the inside of her lens' and her eyes. She raised her now thoroughly cold right hand and whipped off her glasses, shaking them quickly in the air to cause the snow to fall back onto the snow mound beneath her.

Then she tried to stand. Hannah cried out in pain as sharp pin pricks of what felt like razors radiated warm and pointed on the inside of her thigh. _Crap! _The dampness of the snow was quickly freezing her leg, which was sparsely protected from the cold by her black leggings. It should have felt uncomfortable, but, as heat seared from the inside of her leg, the opposing feeling of the cold felt like a relief for the brunette.

She huffed, the puff of smoke leaving her chapped lips once again confirming the negative temperatures that surrounded Mt. Washington, and tried to move once more.

It took a couple of tries, with Hannah having to slide the small bag she had brought with her off her shoulder and onto the frozen snow mound with her left hand so that she could use her entire arm and upper body strength to remove herself from the snow's deathly grip. _Jesus! I've sunk pretty far, haven't I?_

Hannah groaned loudly when she couldn't remove herself at first. But, given a few tries and with a little help from the rock wall that was connected to the gate to her right, Hannah managed to pull her leg out of the hole that it had fallen into, her hands rubbing the damp appendage with the intent to warm it enough so that she would be able to walk again. It felt numb, but most of her body felt numb at the moment so she paid it no mind.

"Alrighty then," Hannah murmured as she bent her legs and tried to stand, reaching across her body uncomfortably to pick up her bag with her left hand as she grabbed one of the rocks that jutted out from the wall with her right. Carefully stepping around the hole that she had created as well as being mindful of where any other potential sinkholes could be, the brunette carefully edged herself over to rock wall and placed both hands on it's ledge, tasting her weight on it experimentally before she hoisted herself over the top.

Hannah lifted her bag, mindful of the laptop that she had safely stored inside, and placed it gently on the ledge, pushing it backward and cringing at the rough noise the rock wall made on her hardware. _Christ, if any of that stuff gets broken…_ The Washington adjusted her glasses more firmly on the bridge of her nose with her pointer finger and ran a hand through her shortened hair, pushing it backward and out of her line of sight.

The brunette let out a strained noise as she placed both of her palms flat on the rocky surface and lifted her body swiftly over the lip of the wall, her muscles straining as she stood on her tiptoes and swung her leg onto the snowy ledge. Hannah grimaced as she quickly grabbed the stone lip on the opposite side of the wall with her right hand and used her left hand to hoist up the rest of her body, her thighs now strandling the wall while her legs hung limply on either side of the stony surface.

Once she had settled on top of the wall, the brunette stopped for a moment, grabbing the handle of her bag and dragging it towards herself through the thick snow that adorned the top of the wall, and closed her eyes. She gathered the bag to her chest and gave it, and therefore her laptop, a squeeze as she breathed in the fresh mountain air. It was a nice change from the stale air that normally permeated the fabriced confines of her car and of the polluted, hot air that almost always surrounded her home in Las Angeles even though the Washington Estate was on the far outskirts of the mobbed city.

_I forgot how nice it was to be out in nature. There's always so much shit going on at home now; It's nice to be able to just relax and enjoy the simplicity of the woods._

A few snowflakes fell onto Hannah's shoulders and stuck to the young girl's hair, her breath mingling with the night air and purifying her lungs from the smog and excess waste that had hung over her home. _That __**still**_ _hung over my home. Even after a year. _She could feel all the negativity and self-loathing that had been hanging over the Washington Household slowly sinking off of her shoulders, sliding down the wall, and into the snow below.

A weight was quickly being lifted off of the Washington's shoulders and she found the feeling to be electrifying, opening her eyes to look skyward and to gaze at the grey clouds above with wide, innocent eyes. _If only __**this**_ _was what I remembered of Blackwood. The quiet moments, not the bad ones. Not the moments where I led my two best friends out into a snowstorm to never be seen again. Not the moments when I remembered the creature that had approached me that night..._

That thought jolted her out of her reverie, the negativity that had escaped her so easily before returning just as quickly with a vengeance and sinking low and hard into her chest. It felt like someone had a vice like grip on her heart and was mercilessly squeezing it over and over again in an attempt to cause her to go into cardiac arrest. Her grip on her bag loosened and she suddenly found herself wanting to be anywhere but where she was. Somewhere not so out in the open, on top of an icy wall, with her heavy breathing just **begging** for something to come out from the dark landscape and find her.

Darting her eyes back the way she had came, Hannah quickly swung her left leg over to the other side of the wall and prepared herself to drop down to the snowy ground, her hands beginning to shake as an all consuming fear settled onto her bones. She bit her lip and tried to will her hands to be still, slipping her bag back onto her left shoulder with her right hand as silently as she could.

_I need to start moving._

_Right. Now._

So she fell.

* * *

"**THE PAST IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL"**

"Wow, that's fucked up."

The map that had once served as a guide for visitors going up to the lodge had been vandalised, that part was obvious. It was kinda hard to ignore the glaring red paint that spelled out the words in a weird, calligraphy that Chris didn't recognise as any of his friend's handwriting. That being said, who the Hell would drive up a private mountain in the middle of _No Man's Land_ just to graffiti a sign?

Obviously whoever had done it had heard about what happened to Beth and Sam, which narrowed down the choices to exactly… everybody who had watched the news in the last year or had listened to the radio that had been broadcasting the story all week. _Maybe it was a ghost? _Chris snorted and shook his head, taking a step backwards to look at the mountainous scenery in front of him. _Uh yeah. Probably not._

It didn't really matter who painted the words though; it was still fucked up. A part of Chris was even embarrassed by the sign, wanting to just wipe away the impactful words with a swipe of his jacket clad right arm before anyone else had the chance to see it.

The other part however, the more mischievous side of the blond that had gotten him into trouble on multiple occasions, wanted to take a picture of the sign and blast it all over Twitter while he still could, a stupid hashtag already appearing in his mind as he chuckled to himself with glee. _That would be fucking funny as Hell. #Just got up here for vaca #but turns out #there's a freaking ghost after us! #Pray for me_

It was in poor taste, but the mountain didn't have service so Hannah and Josh probably wouldn't see it until next week when it was time to go home to LA. Chris's blue eyes fell onto the sign once more, but his phone stayed firmly in his pocket. _Not worth it._ With all the shit that the Washington's had been going through that year, Chris didn't want to add to the drama with a stupid joke.

A hawk screamed in the distance and filled the quiet night with a piercing echo that resounded all around the little clearing that surrounded the cable car station. The cry sent shivers up and down Chris' spine as he rubbed his hands together, quickly turned his back on the sign, and headed back towards the backpack that he had left on a bench right next to the entrance to the station.

The grey structure had two lights that illuminated a sharp roof and one or two glass windows with blinding clarity compared to the dark woods on all sides of the cable car station. Several holes in the aging wood that comprised the main structure of the station were also unable to escape the shining lights that blazed down from the roof. In the distance, towards the mountain landscape he had just turned his back to, Chris could see one of the towers that held the line for the cable car blinking methodically in the grey haze. Several wooden planks creaked with age as the blond stepped into the little alcove that was deliberately placed into the side of the station to prevent wind or snow from getting into the face of whomever was waiting for the cable car.

Pushing his backpack away from the edge of the bench and closer to the center, Chris plopped down onto the wooden surface with a swishing noise from his jacket and fished his phone out of his right jacket pocket. He was planning to kill time by playing a quick game on his phone while waiting for anyone else to arrive, but that plan was quickly dashed when the device began to vibrate in his hand.

**Ashley**

**1 new message**

Opening his phone of the slide of his thumb, Chris quickly located the Messenger App and opened it, searching through his list of contacts before locating Ashley's name.

**Ashley 8.17 pm: **_I'm all the way up near the old bridge by myself and I need someone to talk to :/_

Reading over the message with a chuckle, Chris leaned back into the bench seat and typed his response. It took a couple of tries though, as Chris' fingers were numb from the cold and refused to cooperate.

**Me 8.17 pm:** _oh i see how it is. you only talk to me when YOU'RE lonely, huh? :P_

**Ashley 8.18 pm: **_I talk to you all the time and you know it, Christopher lol. How far are you from the lodge?_

**Me 8.19 pm: **_i'm still at the cable car station _

**Ashley 8.19 pm: **_Sheesh! _

**Me 8.19 pm: **_i know, i know. i'm waiting for people before i go up. you know me, being too much of a pissbaby to go up by my lonesome lol_

Chris bounced his legs as he waited for a response, looking up briefly from his phone to look back down the path he had come from to see if anyone else had arrived yet. Nope. _Huh._

**Ashley 8.21 pm: **_You're not a pissbaby lol. Who are you waiting for because I think Josh is already here if you're waiting for him. Jess too._

Chris frowned. _Jess was invited? Since when? By whom?_

**Me 8.22 pm: **_nah i'm not waiting for josh. i didn't know jess was here tho. and i'm not waiting for anyone in particular_

**Ashley 8.22 pm: **_Oh._

**Ashley 8.22 pm: **_Well then, don't wait too long! You might freeze and I need some human interaction not through a phone for once lol :)_

**Me 8.23 pm: **_once again i talk to you all the time :P and not just on a phone! _

**Ashley 8.23 pm: **_Studying doesn't count! XP _

"Who you talking to?"

Chris startled slightly, the phone almost falling out of his grasp and onto his lap as he looked up towards the person that was steadily trudging their way over to him through the thick snow. "Nobody important, Nosy," Chris replied as Hannah stepped into the little alcove and, after stomping her boot clad feet a few times to rid them of snow, walked over to Chris with a small smirk pulling on her lips, "I was just killin' some time, playing some games. Definitely not talking to the Mafia. That sort of thing."

Christopher Hartley, Aged 19

Josh's Best Friend

Methodical

Protective

Humorous

Hannah gave him a disbelieving look that almost made Chris laugh out loud, something that probably wouldn't help his white lie and would probably only result in him getting slugged in the arm by the mildly pissed off Washington. "Oh really? Since when do people randomly grin at their phones like idiots in the middle of the woods at night? Sounds pretty suspicious and Mafia-like to me, just sayin'."

"I mean, you ever heard of porn before?"

Hannah let out a noise of indignation and scrunched up her nose in a disgusted manner, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. Chris grinned, furiously trying to prevent any unwarranted laughter from escaping his throat, and placed his phone back into his pocket with a plop.

Hannah brown eyes were glowing with mirth when the blond reached to his left and grabbed one of the handles to his backpack, making a move to stand as the brunette moved quickly out of his way. "Sooo… How've ya been?" Chris asked with a lilt in his voice, standing and turning his back to the Washington for a second so that he could firmly grab his bag and swing it onto his shoulders.

He adjusted the straps, turning them so that they were facing the correct way and not snagged on his large coat as he listened to Hannah's response, her voice smaller than it had been a few seconds prior. "Ah well… home is not a super fun place to be and I'm not really going to Stanford or to any of my classes anymore, so…"

_What?_ Chris turned back to face the brunette, who was bouncing from foot to foot as she looked towards the mountainous landscape to their left. Her sweatshirt made her look even smaller than she already was and therefore made her darkened features appear sad, an emotion that was normally not apparent on ANY of the Washington's faces, let alone Hannah's. _She was usually the most chipper out of all the siblings, so what the fuck was going on? I could ask her and find out…_

"How about you, hm? How's college life treating ya?" Lost in his thoughts, Chris didn't hear the question that had been directed at him until Hannah turned back to look at him with her wide, brown eyes and the innocent lean of her head that reminded the blond a little too much of… "Chris? Christopher? Seriously, you need to stop looking at me like I just grew a third head."

_Shit, what had she asked me again?_ "Sorry, Han. I, uh, think I just went to another dimension and I completely forgot what you just said. C-can you repeat the question again?"

"So you weren't listening to what I was saying?"

"...Maybe. Just a little bit."

Hannah rolled her eyes and shook her head again in the blond's direction, Chris feeling slightly stupid as he smiled sheepishly back at her. "Sorry," he said quickly as he placed his hands in his jean pockets and puffed his cheeks up with air, turning in a quick circle to once again look back down the path that led to civilisation as a chilled feeling settled onto his back. _I already feel like somebody or something is watching me even though I just got to Blackwoods twenty minutes ago? Great._ "I didn't realise you kept your guns out all winter?" Maybe he could have said something more intelligent, but the cold air was starting to frazzle his brain and he just wanted the silence to be filled again with the noise of their previous, friendly chatter.

Hannah took a step backwards, towards the entrance to the cable car station, and Chris followed her quickly, zipping up his jacket because _man it was starting to get fucking cold out_ as he went. She didn't respond to his question, instead deciding to raise her glasses higher onto her nose with her pointer finger and to examine the bright green door that bared the way from the outside to the probably nice-n-toasty station. "Do you have a key?" she asked absentmindedly as she turned to look at Chris with her mouth pressed into a thin line and her left hand outstretched.

"Uh... yeah," Chris replied with a confused expression on his face, his left hand dipping into his right pocket to fish out his key ring and therefore the key that would open the door. The keys clacked together as he brought them out, fingers drifting across each one until he found the large silver key that would fit into the lock and handed the key ring to Hannah with the inquiry, "Why don't you have your own key?"

"I lost mine a while back. Didn't really want anything to do with this place, you know?" Hannah replied as she slipped the key into the lock and twisted the handle sharply, opening the door inward and stepping through quickly. _Oh._

She held the door for Chris, to which he said with a mock-English accent, "Why thank you, M'lady," and handed him his keys as he passed with a clack. Chris watched as Hannah locked the door again, his hand putting the keys quickly back into his pocket, and, trying to bring up the somber mood (_since your first try didn't work, you idiot_), asked, "Have people really broken into the station before?"

The brunette opened her mouth to speak, her hands placed delicately into her sweatshirt pockets, before looking out into the mountain landscape to her right with a thoughtful look on her face as the blond awaited an answer. He walked forward a little bit, nearly tripping on a loose floorboard and landing on his face while he looked around the cable car station.

It didn't look much better on the inside than it did on the outside. A few snowboards were leaning against a wall near the door but other than that, there was almost no other furniture or anything of the sort inside the first room of the station. To his left, the mountains stood tall and ominous in the distance, shrouded by wisps of grey clouds that circled slowly around the mountains over and over again. The cable car was steadily inching it's way down the cable line, the wind making it sway and bounce as it descended from the Washington's Mountain.

"My Dad said that when he and the police came last year, a homeless couple was sleeping inside of the station in that first room," Hannah eventually murmured as Chris turned to look back into the first room with a new wariness and then back at the brunette, whose thin lips were pressed tightly together. The brunette journeyed farther into the station, Chris hearing her boots make an echoey sound on the aluminum that covered the floor of the second room. The blond watched, his hand traveling to his face to adjust his own black lens, as Hannah leaned against the bar that protected anyone that got too close to the sheer drop off of at the edge of the cable car station and sighed with a wave of her arm, "I thought the car was closer. Damn, this sucks."

Chris trudged over to where she leaned, his own boots making loud noises on the aluminium and joked with a serious expression, "Guess you're going to have to spend more time with me. Truly, what a tragedy!" He pretended to faint with a hand to his forehead and an exasperated gasp, watching for the Washington's reaction through slitted eyelids. She smiled genuinely and Chris grinned in return, leaning on the ledge to the left of Hannah lightly. _Mission accomplished._

"It probably won't take that long for the car to get here, so I won't suffer for too long at least."

"It's a big mountain and an even bigger ravine, I wouldn't be surprised if the car never made it here _at all_," Chris retorted as he scanned the mountain range, his blue eyes eventually settling on the growing object in the distance that would be their only mode of transport up the mountain, "You'll be stuck here with me foreeevvvverrrr!"

Hannah gave him the side eye at his ghost impression, Chris folding his hands neatly on the fence as if what he had just said was completely normal. She shook her head slightly, a smile gracing her features again and returned her gaze to the mountains. Another silence fell over the two, but this time it was comfortable and welcome, not sharp and cold like it had been earlier. "It's so beautiful up here in the day time," Hannah began as she turned to the side to face Chris head on, her short hair casting jagged shadows across her face with her eyes trained directly into the blond's. Chris shifted uncomfortably as she continued, "But at night, it just feels menacing like… I don't know," Hannah waved her arm out towards the mountains once more as Chris waited patiently for her to continue, "... like a sleeping giant."

"You gonna publish?"

"What?"

"Your pretty poem. "The Sleeping Giant of Blackwood Forest-"

"Oh shut up."

_Nailed it._

Chris smirked to himself as the cable car approached the station, the rattling and shaking of the car stopping abruptly as it docked haphazardly to the side of aluminum floor. Hannah, brushing her bangs out of her face, turned to Chris with a smirk as she asked, "You coming, Chris? I know how much you _love _the cable car."

The blond huffed and stood up straight with a push off of the fence, the Washington following suite as she brushed down the front of her sweatshirt with one hand. "Don't mock my fear, Hannah," Chris huffed as he took a step around the brunette and, gripping the handles of his backpack, walked into the cable car, sitting down on the bench on the left side of the car with a thump. The little car shook and Chris momentarily felt his heart freeze up. "I get enough shit from Josh as it is," he muttered as Hannah joined him on the inside of the car and sat to his right, the smile turning into something somewhat sympathetic as the car started to move again.

"Here we go!" Hannah exclaimed as Chris placed his hands firmly on his thighs in an attempt to remain calm. _Is this car smaller than last year or is it just me? It sure feels smaller…_

"It- it's just like going to prom," Chris stuttered out with as much forced enthusiasm as he could without losing his shit completely. _Agh, I hate this fucking cable car_, "Just a lot more death defying..."

Hannah gave him a strange look and set her bag onto her lap with a thunk, turning her attention back out the window and to the mountains. The noise from her bag brought Chris back to his senses as a question along the lines of _what the Hell do you got in there, Han? a ton of rocks? _appeared in his mind. He thought about asking it, his right leg bouncing anxiously on the floor of the car, when another, more important question entered the blond's mind. _Why didn't I ask this before?_ "Why didn't you and Josh travel together?"

Hannah quickly turned from the window and replied with a note of sadness in her tone, "He said he wanted to come up here first and 'get some stuff done'." She mimed air quotes and then shrugged dismissively, "I offered to go with him, but you know how Josh gets when he sets his mind to something. It's almost impossible to get him to change it."

Chris frowned and shifted off his backpack so that he could place it delicately at his feet, trying to take care that he didn't shake the car too much. "He literally left campus, like, three days early. What's he doing up there, building a bunker?" Hannah looked down at her lap and played with her hands while Chris leaned back on the bench and cleaned his glasses with a bit of the sweater poking out from under the bottom of his jacket, "But whatever. He seems excited about the trip and about being back up here again, though I have no friggin' clue why."

"I'm excited to be seeing everyone again," Hannah replied shyly as she placed her head in her hands and peered at the empty bench on the opposite side of the cable car, "And I think he's more excited about seeing all of us again more than anything else. He's probably just doing some maintenance for the lodge; Some things were pretty jacked up the last time…" Chris saw her falter for a moment and his hand reached out to her shoulder reassuringly, a sad smile appearing on her face before she continued, "...you know, the last time any of us were up here."

"Right." Chris removed his hand and placed it into his own lap, his phone burning a hole in his pocket and tempting him with the sin of technology. _Good job, Hartley. Ruining the conversation one question at a time… Wait a minute._ Chris reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, a sly grin appearing on his face as he said, "I don't know _why _Josh would need to see the gang again when he has _me_, the most amazing best friend there ever was in the history of best friends," Hannah laughed at that, her voice filling the car pleasantly, "But what I DO know is that the video that he sent us-"

"Oh God, what did he do?"

Chris gasped out loud and placed a hand on his chest, the hand that held his phone furiously swiping through his emails, searching for the newest one sent by the eldest Washington. "You mean to tell me you haven't see this _masterpiece _yet?" Chris asked with mock astonishment as he found the email he was looking for and pulled up the video enclosed inside, "Josh, the genius behind this film, literally sent me this this morning and, I will say some of it is sad, but the phrases he used fucking _killed_ me. I literally couldn't stop laughing."

Hannah looked genuinely worried now and Chris couldn't prevent himself from giggling out loud. Even the shaking of the cable car and the fear of impending doom couldn't stop the guffaws escaping Chris' lips. The Washington slide closer to Chris, her right shoulder leaning casually against his left, as the opening image of her out of focus brother appeared on screen and she said, "He needs to figure out how to use the damn camera."

Chris smiled and, sitting up straighter and trying to forget that he was currently 300 ft. above the ground in a tiny, metal box, pressed play with the tip of his thumb.

* * *

"**Well hello, friends and fans!**

"**Alright, let's do that again… [camera is adjusted]**

"**Alright. Well hello, friends and fans. It's beyond awesome to have all you guys back this year. Um. First off, I gotta say I am SUPER excited to welcome all my pals back to the annual Blackwood Winter Getaway! Hurray! [chuckles] **

"**So, um, let me just let you know, uh, let's take a moment to address the elephant in the room for a second… I know… you all are pretty worried about me and Hannah and I know it's going to be tough on all of us going back after what happened last year.**

"**But… I just want you all to know… um… It means so much to me and so much to Hannah… Hell, it matters SO much to both of us that we're doing this and… [looks downward to floor in a flustered manner]**

"**I know it would mean so much to Beth and Sam that we're - we're all still here together and thinking of them. I really want to spend some quality time with e-each and every one of you and, um, share some moments that we'll never forget.**

"**For - for the sake of my sister and for the girl that was as much part of our family as a real sister would be and... [nods head sharply] You know… **

"**...Okay so... Let's... party like we're fucking pornstars, okay! Let's make this one trip that we will never forget, alright?! **

"**Yes! [a slight chuckle]"**

* * *

**Mike 3 8.33 pm: **_Soooo… what ya thinkin' about?_

**Me 8.33 pm: **_Oh nothing… just about the amazing time we're gonning to have ;)_

**Mike 3 8.34 pm: **_Reeally?_

**Me 8.34 pm: **_Uh-huh ;)_

**Mike 3 8.34 pm: **_Tell me.. what do think we should do to make this an /unforgettable/ vaca? _

**Me 8.34 pm: **_Well first we'd cozy up by the fire_

**Mike 3 8.35 pm: **_right…_

**Me 8.35 pm: **_then I'd slid right next to u while your playing with my thigh_

**Mike 3 8.35 pm: **_mmm_

**Mike 3 8.35 pm: **_do continue_

Jessica smiled widely as her fingers flew across her keypad, crossing her right leg over her left as she thought of a response.

**Me 8.37 pm: **_And Then you'd move ur hand a little loweer, moving slowly as we kiss. we'd start removing some clothes and maybe id grope ya ;)_

**Mike 3 8.38 pm: **_Damn jess that's fucking hot ;)_

**Mike 3 8.38 pm: **_starting to get impatient while i drive_

**Me 8.39 pm: **_*gasp* michael! Ur texting and driving?! someones not being a good boy….._

The whirring of the cable car was steadily growing closer and, as she twirled the end of her blonde, braided hair, Jessica felt a small nugget of disappointment appear in her stomach. _Too bad it's not Mike. That'd make this conversation a WHOLE lot more entertaining._

Jessica Riley, Aged 18

Mike's New Girlfriend

Confident

Trusting

Irreverent

The snow was blowing much more rapidly up on top of the Washington's mountain, the entrance (_Or was it exit?_) to the cable car station doing little to prevent the wind gusts from blowing snow into the blonde's face. Her purple winter jacket, though stylish, did little to protect her from the cold and, with her patience about waiting for her boyfriend beginning to wear thin, she looked down at her phone with a spark of an idea in her eyes.

**Mike 3 8.39 pm: **_am i?_

**Mike 3 8.40 pm: **_it dead up here its not like im gonna hit anyone_

**Mike 3 8.40 pm: **_But anywho, where were we?_

**Me 8.42 pm: **_ur just gonna have to get you rbutt up here and find out for yourself ;)_

**Mike 3 8.42 pm: **_unbelievable you just gonna leave a guy high and dry like this_

**Me 8.43 pm: **_u better believe it buster! ;)_

**Me 8.44 pm: **_there'll be planty of time for thiat once you get here_

The whirring of the cable car stopped abruptly, the sudden change in noise throwing Jessica for a loop for a moment and prompting her to look towards the green door with large, grey eyes. Realising that someone probably just arrived, Jess quickly adjusted her coat (_Because even though it's not Mike, I still have to look nice_) and adjusted her braids so that they laid flat on her shoulders in a flattering manner.

"Boy oh boy oh boy. New people. Time to meet and greet!" Jess coached herself as she stood from her seat on the wooden bench and began to meander over to her left with slow footsteps, over to where the green door she had come out from was located. Her phone buzzed again in her right hand and she suppressed the urge to look at her text with a clench of her hand as she reached the green door. _Hello? More important things to worry about here! That could be Emily on the other side of that door! Oh God, I swear if she makes one more comment about me and Mike, I'm going to knock…_

THUD!

"What the Hell!?" Jess exclaimed with a step backwards, her arms flying to her sides protectively. She felt her heart pump an irregular rhythm in her chest as she timidly took a step forward to peer into the window that covered the top half of the door. Through the dusty glass, the blonde could see two people-like shapes and, confirming that it was in fact two people (_Two really _annoying _people_) when she cleared the dust off of her side of the door with a sweep of her hand, she leaned back with her hip cocked and frowned, "Seriously? You needed to do that?"

"Not my intention. It's kinda hard to see in here when it's so friggin dark, y'know?" Jessica rolled her eyes in the direction of Chris' voice and glanced down at the phone in her hand as it buzzed again. _Now I REALLY want to take a quick look…_

"Hey Jess?" Hannah's voice appeared next, somewhat knocking the image of Mike from the blonde's mind as she looked back to the window, both Hannah's and Chris' faces apparent through the dust. The former looked distraught, "Could you, um, open to door for us? Pretty please?"

"Um, are you guys having a really weird stroke?" _Can't they just open it from the inside?_ "Isn't there, like I don't know, a handle or something on your side of the door?"

Hannah looked at Jessica with wide eyes as Chris' face morphed into one of exasperation. "Uh nope," he said shortly as rapped on the windows with his knuckles, Jess narrowing her eyes as he continued, "I mean, if there was, why would we ask you to open the door? We would've already come out." He looked miffed and Jess couldn't find it in herself to care. _Seriously? Who builds a cable car station that won't open from the inside?_

The blonde gripped her phone tighter as she turned towards the little box that would open the door, pushing the green button on top with the palm of her hand until it glowed in the darkness. _There. Happy?_ She didn't wait for the others to open the door before she turned on her heel with a huff, walking off the platform that was connected to the station and into the snow. The door squeaked open as Jess opened her phone.

**Mike**

**5 new messages**

"Oh. My. God. I thought we were goners. Another ten minutes in there and I would have chewed off my own leg!"

Hannah laughed and Jess shook her head at Chris' stupid joke as she read over what Mike had sent her with a raised brow.

**Mike 3 8.44 pm: **_well then _

**Mike 3 8.44 pm: **_Im just gona have to show you all kinds of affection when i get there 3_

**Mike 3 8.45 pm: **_i here theres a nice little cabin in the middle of woods…_

**Mike 3 8.46 pm: **_nice and quiet and away from everyone else…_

**Mike 3 8.48 pm: **_the perfect place for /getting down to buiness/ ;)_

"You have WiFi up here?" Jess looked away from her screen, her fingers poised above the keypad, and looked at Chris, who was standing a few feet away with a curious look in his eye. _Curious and… maybe something else?_

Jess shrugged her shoulders, lowering her phone to her side slowly as she replied, "Yeah. New phone, brand new model, straight off the market. It's supposed to work anywhere."

Hannah, watching Jess with pressed lips, nodded once and then looked at the ground, the blonde noting that her hands were fidgeting in her sweatshirt pocket. Chris, for his part, blew out a gust of air and leaned back on his heels before asking, "How many bars you got?"

Before the blonde could answer, her mouth open to say _I have no idea, you freaking nerd. Figure it out yourself_, Chris closed the short distance between them and quickly swiped the phone out of her frosty fingers with a whooshing noise from his jacket. "Excuse me?" Jess snapped as she stepped forward to retrieve her phone, Chris blocking her path with his body as he quickly opened her phone with a swipe of his thumb, "Don't you know anything about personal boundaries, you tool?! Give it back!"

"What? I'm just looking at the bars. I'll give it right back," Chris replied indignantly as he looked through all of her apps, the glow of her phone reflecting in the blond's glasses menacingly.

Jess huffed in annoyance and looked at Hannah, expecting her to jump in and to help her try to get her phone back. She didn't say a word, choosing instead to continue looking at the ground. _Figures._ "I could've just told you; There's no need to get all grabby with my _fourth phone this year_!" Jess spit as she tried to take the device back again, being blocked once more by Chris and, instead of trying again, deciding to back off and to cross her arms over her chest angrily.

"You've been texting Mike, I see." Jessica glared at Chris as he pulled up her messenger app and clicked on his name, "... My goodness. Seems that someone has a lil crush on our _good friend _and dear class president, Michael Munroe…"

"Chris, come on. Give her her phone back," Hannah interrupted with a wave of her hand in Jess's direction, the blonde only rolling her eyes towards the brunette as she attempted to melt Chris into a puddle with her glare. _Coulda used you before now, Han_, "You wouldn't want anyone looking at your texts would you?"

_Bingo._ "Yeah Chris," Jess began, matching the blond's own mocking tone as she stepped forward, "Wouldn't want anyone to know about your own lil crush on Ashley, now would ya?" She watched for Chris' reaction, his face unreadable as he continued to scan through Jess' texts. Even in the darkness though, the blonde could make out a little red tinge decorating the former's cheeks.

"Annndd what kind of sizzling erotica might our Jessica be capable of imagining?" Chris paused to give Jess a meaningful look as he pointed at the screen with his free hand, "I wonder…"

"Mike and Em split. We're together." Pulling at one of her braids, Jess was starting to get annoyed with this conversation. _Just give me the friggin' phone!_ She stepped forward again and, uncrossing her arms, placed a hand on her hip as she asked snarkily, "I don't know WHY I need to explain this since you probably already _freaking _know." Chris raised a brow, a small smile pulling at his lips that agitated Jessica so much that all she wanted to do was slap him and grab her phone by force.

"I know that you're together, Jess," Chris said calmly as he closed her phone, but kept it firmly in hand, "I just don't know _why_ you would even consider getting together with Mike."

"Chris-"

"No seriously, I want to know." The tone in his voice had lost all mockery, his face a mask of stone as he pointedly looked at Hannah with a nod of his head, "Considering what happened last year, I'm surprised you two were even invited back."

Hannah looked at Chris, her back rigid as she said sharply, "We're not fucking bringing that up, Chris. I'm _fine_, I told you already. Stop bringing it up." The Washington's brown eyes fell on Jess, who, under the intense gaze, shifted uncomfortably, "I'm glad you're here, Jess and… I'm excited to see Mike again too." _Sure you are._ "So, let's cut with the bullshit and just, you know, 'make this trip one we'll never forget.'"

Jess cringed as Hannah repeated the words from the stupid video that Josh had sent her that morning, turning back to Chris with an outstretched hand and a pursed mouth. At least he looked a little bit ashamed, but that still didn't stop him from waving the phone mockingly in front of his face, tempting the blonde to come forward and take it from him. "You're soo lucky that I'm not going to stoop as low as you and go through your fucking phone as well," Jess hissed with a humorless laugh as she stomped forward and, stopping right in front of Chris, snached the phone back from his hand, "I'm sure I'd find plenty of the same stuff Mike has sent to me that YOU have sent to Ash on your phone, so don't push it."

Chris barked a brief laugh and replied with sass dripping in his voice, "Actually, you wouldn't because I'm a fucking gentlemen and _we're not actually dating_." Hannah looked like she wanted to say something; the blonde could see it clearly in the other's brown eyes. But, she obviously decided against it, instead choosing to look at the mountain landscape to her left.

"Whatever."

Jessica turned her back to Chris and walked slowly back to where she was standing before, pulling up her lock screen to look at the picture of her and Mike that was set as her wallpaper. _Jeez Mike. Why couldn't you have come here just a little bit faster?_ The blonde heard Chris exhale loudly and then say, "Alright, alright. Let's just get up to the lodge already. I'm tired of all this nature and junk."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Jess heard Hannah mutter, whipping her head around as she watched the Washington trudge past her to look at the mountains in the distance up close.

She fixed her braids again, resting them gently on her shoulders, as she turned back to cable car station and, taking a step onto the platform said airly, "Uh, you guys go ahead. I'm just going to wait here for a bit… See who else is coming."

"You mean Mike?"

_I swear to God… Forget Emily. I might just deck this cabbage patch kid instead. _"What?" Jess snapped impatiently at Chris' mocking tone, her hands bunching into fists at her sides, "Yes _Christopher_, if you must know, I'm waiting for Michael. Okay? Jesus, fuck off!"

Chris must have known he pushed too far because his coy smile fell away and he grabbed onto the handles of his bag, tugging them every once and awhile as he looked away from Jess. Triumph flourished in her chest. _Hah!_ "Mhm… Hannah? You coming?"

The brunette was currently standing near the rope fence that prevented anyone from falling off the edge of the mountain, her hands wrapped around the snowy rope as she leaned outwards. Jess could barely hear Hannah over the wind as she said, with a hint of awe in her voice, "Do you see this view?" She looked back and smiled at first to Chris and then to Jessica, her wide smile making the blonde feel weird in her stomach, "I mean, holy cow! Sometimes I forget to just… stop and take it all in."

* * *

"Seriously, couldn't they have built the lodge, like, right where the cable car ends?"

Emily Davis, Aged 19

Mike's Ex

Intelligent

Resourceful

Persuasive

"I don't think it would've been like… as pretty… you know."

Matthew Taylor, Aged 18

Emily's New Boyfriend

Motivated

Ambitious

Active

"And where's the bellboy when you need one?!" Emily asked with disgust, Matt bending over quickly to pick up his girlfriend's two bags with a groan. _Damn. These things are heavy. What the fuck do you have in here?_

The gate they had just walked through, made of a black metal which had been cold against Matt's sweaty palms, swung back and forth in the breeze and created odd squeaking noises every once and while, a grating sound that stung Matt's ears. Emily, the snowflakes smoothly sliding off her black, leather jacket, was already far ahead of the jock by the time he had stood up straight again and began to walk after his girlfriend. "Why would the Washington's have a bellboy all the way up here anyway?" Matt huffed as he walked behind Emily, his legs wanting to go faster but the heavy bags in his hands preventing it.

Emily turned around to face her boyfriend, an annoyed look adorning her face as she placed a hand on her hip. "Hello! Their loaded!" Emily snipped as Matt ambled up beside her, the condescending tone in her face heating his face in an unpleasant way, "My parents have a bellboy at _their _lodge in Alaska. I was just assuming every rich family in LA had an actual nice looking, well maintained mountain with attendants to help with their shit. Apparently, I was wrong."

Emily swiveled around and continued walking, Matt watching her go for a second before continuing with a sigh. "God, everything looks like a bear ravaged it! Even the cable station is in need of repairs! Hah! It's like Washington's don't even know what to do with their money!" Emily chidded as a wind gust blew through the trees and caused Matt to shiver and turn his head to avoid the worst of the wind.

_Should've worn something other than the letterman jacket, Mattie._ "Ugh. Getting chills."

"We're almost there," Matt consoled while Emily hugged herself as she stepped onto the old bridge that crossed a river on the path to the Washington's lodge. A part of Matt wanted to warm his girlfriend by giving her his letterman, something that he had done in the past to which Emily had promptly commented on the musky smell within, but he was too cold to do that right now. Plus, he was carrying her bags and he'd have to drop them to get his jacket off, something that he had already been yelled at once about today. _And if I keep jostling the bag, the flowers are gonna get ruined…_

A crow cawed overhead and snow crunched under his winter boots, Matt's arms more or less starting to feel like spaghetti as he too stepped onto the wooden floorboards of the bridge. _Thank God there's walls. _"No. I mean gettin' kinda creeped out," Emily corrected, her voice long and echoey in the confines of the bridge, her boots lightly sending vibrations back to Matt has he walked. _How sturdy is this bridge anyway?_ "It's gonna be weird seeing everyone up here again."

"...definitely not going to feel like a regular party." Matt caught up with Emily, who seemed to be busy looking at the snow that fell through the large gaps in the roof above them to pay him any serious mind. A wave of sadness hit Matt right in the gut as what had happened last year all came flooding back at once, his footsteps feeling heavier every step that he took closer to the lodge.

He remembered his role clearly in the prank, remembered how he had thought it would be so funny to see one of their friends get punked, remembered how the weight of the selfie stick felt in his hand. And he also remembered the look on Hannah's face when she had seen him come out of the closet, the sound of his name on her heartbroken lips at the sight of the camera in his hand… He really, _really_ didn't like remembering that part.

He swallowed, nearing the end of the bridge. "I mean, what do you think-"

ARRRRRRRRRRAGGGGGHHHA!

Matt immediately dropped the bags and jumped into a fighting stance, fists raised menacingly to his face as the figure jumped out from the right side of the bridge. He instinctively stepped towards Emily, whose own hands were raised to protect her face, until his brain realised who had just jumped out at him. "Dude!"

Michael Munroe, Aged 19

Emily's Ex

Intelligent

Driven

Persuasive

Mike began to chuckle as Matt slowly lowered his hands, the former bending over with laughter as Emily recovered and spat with crossed arms, "Michael!"

Through his laughs, Mike managed to choke out, "G-guys! You really, really should have just seen your faces right there!"

Matt, his face pulled into an annoyed expression, pointed at Mike menacingly and snapped, "Dude, I almost clocked you just now!"

"Michael, you're a jerk." Matt looked fondly in Emily's direction. Though she had faults, Matt always appreciated her bluntness the most. _Except, of course, when it's directed at me._

Mike, who had doubled over from his own laughter, stood up with a poorly concealed laugh and, running a hand through his brown hair, replied with outstretched arms, "Wha- Guys. We're all friends here, right?" He paused for a moment before starting to laugh again, turning away as he chuckled lowly to himself. Matt breathed out loudly and reached for Em's hand, grasping onto the appendage and giving it a firm squeeze. Recovering himself, Mike turned back to the group and continued, "No need for violence. It's just a little harmless fun!"

He grinned as he looked at Emily, Matt's hand clutching Em's tighter as something mean and preditoral swirled in his gut. _Oh Hell no. Not this trip._ The brunette continued, "We're out in the woods, it's spooky… Come on! Let's get into the spirit of things!"

Emily shook her head, Matt's gut feeling growing stronger by the second, and asked snarkily, "The 'spirit of things'? Seriously, what's wrong with you?"

"I was just trying to light the mood, Em! Don't be like that." _Man oh man, if Emily wasn't standing here… Kind of hard to lighten the mood when two people are dead and we're supposed to be mourning them, dipshit._

"Like what?"

Mike looked away with a roll of his eyes and, once he had looked back, replied with the tone of a teacher trying to explain something to a child, "The way you're being. You ALWAYS get like this!"

_Alright enough._ "Michael, you gotta step off," Matt began as he squeezed Emily's hand again while staring at Mike with a frown evident on his face. _He actually needs to chill the eff out_. He continued slowly, making sure that Mike heard every word he was saying plus the threat that lay lurking behind those words, "Emily and I are together now and that's just. The way. It is. I'm not gonna tell you again. Do we understand each other?"

Mike gave Matt a look of shock, one that read that he heard the threat in Matt's words. He blinked a few times before replying, "Well, I thought maybe we could move past all of this and be buds, but…" Mike trailed off and his look of shock was replaced with one of slight annoyance, "But yeah fine." The brunette walked forward, in between the jock and Em, his flannel jacket catching snowflakes as he went.

Emily reached out, pulling her hand loose from Matt's. Matt looked at her in confusion. "Mike…"

"No, no, no. It's totally cool. I'm just going to head down the road, be all mature and shit by myself over here." Before reaching the end of the bridge, heading back towards the cable car station, Mike raised his left hand in a peace sign and called back, "Peace!"

And then he was gone.

"I think he got the message," Matt said lowly, his face still fixed in a frown, as he turned to Emily, her face shining with a wide smile, "Right?"

Em nodded briefly and replied as she took a step forward, "Kinda hot when you get all Alpha, you know that?" Matt had to repress a smile as he turned back to the bags he had thrown when Mike had scared them, praying that none of the things they had brought with them had been destroyed. _Better start going up. Really don't want to keep Han and Josh wait-_ "Ah crap!"

"What?" Matt lifted up Em's bag first and then turned to look at her, his brown eyes searching her olive face for any sign of what might be wrong. She had turned back in the direction of the cable car. _And in the direction of Mike_…

"Hey… Could you take these the rest of the way?"

_Come again?_ "The bags?"

"Yeah. Just… All the bags…" Her tone was starting to freak Matt out. It sounded fake or forced or something that he couldn't place right at that second.

"Uh… why?" Matt asked as he placed Em's bag gently back on the ground, so that he could turn and face his girlfriend headon.

"... I need to go find Hannah…"

_Why can't you just wait until we get to the lodge?_ "...Okay?"

Em looked at Matt sheepishly, her black hair swinging in the wind as she said with a gesture in the station's direction, "Sorry! I just need to _really _go find her. I _totally _forgot I needed to go talk to her before we get all the way up there-"

"This really can't wait? I mean, we're almost there…" _What the fuck!?_

"It's important… Matt please…" Emily's face looked really sincere, her lip drooping just a little bit in a puppy-like fashion and her narrow eyes wide and moist, like she was about to cry. But that feeling, that stupid feeling that something was going on…

Matt shook his head and said with a persistent tone in his voice, "Em… I don't think you should be heading back down the trail… by yourself." _Shit. That sounded bad_. Matt mentally slapped himself, wishing that he had just been quiet and taken the bags like his girlfriend had asked him to. But… he really didn't want to do that either. _Craaaaaaaap._

Emily's face hardened and she asked shrilly, "Seriously?"

_Yep. You're an idiot._ "I- It's cold out and it's getting dark a-"

"You're going to protect me from it being _dark out_?" Matt really didn't like the change in Emily's tone, so he shuffled out into the snow and sunk his feet as far as they would go, hoping the snow would cool his mind long enough to think.

He toed one of the bags with his right boot. "I'll just leave your stuff here and come with you," Matt said, hoping that what he said was a good compromise for the both of them, "Nobody's gonna steal it…" _God, I sound like I'm pleading. Embarrassing..._

Emily crossed her arms and snarked, "Matt, are you kidding me?! You can't leave me alone for five minutes; You think that little of me!?"

"That's not what I meant…"

"Why can't you just listen to me!? Why do you have to question everything I say?!"

_Abort! Abort! Abort!_

"I'msorryEm! I'm.. just trying to be helpful…"

"If you wanna be helpful, you can help get everything up to the lodge as quickly as you can, okay?"

Matt looked at his girlfriend with utter shock, his hands held up in a helpless gesture. She had never _not _asked for his help before, so this was a strange turn of events. _Does she really need to talk with Hannah that badly?_ He opened and closed his mouth a few times, floundering on what to say, before finally settling on a simple, "Uh... Okay…" _Oh, of course your voice had to break, you idiot_, "Fine. Whatever you want."

Matt reached down and grabbed Emily's pink bag by the handle, lifting it before turning to his black duffle bag and lifting it as well, his mind a whir as he straightened to look at Emily again. Her face had lost it's icy exterior for the most part, but her body was poised ridgely and her brown eyes held a dare. "Thank you. I'll see you up there after I go find Hannah."

"See you in a bit," Matt replied hastily as he turned around, listening as Emily's boots echoed around the bridge as she walked back to the cable car. The wind was beginning to pick up and Matt shuddered. "Well that went fucking well," he muttered under his breath as he adjusted his grip on the suitcase, the one with the roses tucked delicately inside, and trudged on.

* * *

The metal was cold on her fingers as she looked through the viewfinder, the winter landscape blending together and making almost everything look the same through the snowfall. Her ring, sitting on her middle finger on her right hand, stung as she continued to look through the device in front of her, tempting her to take it off and relief the pain. Not that the pain was too much for her, but it would have been nice to not have it when she was standing freezing on top of creepy mountain in the middle of winter.

She could see pretty much everywhere from inside the little viewing area, even without the viewfinder, and, brushing some of the snow off of the lens so she could have a better look down below, she stepped back slightly to see the world not cross eyed for a second. _Ah, much better._

Ashley Brown, Aged 18

Has A Crush On Chris

Academic

Inquisitive

Forthright

Leaning back into the lens after blinking her eyes a few times, Ashley put her face back on the viewfinder and continued to look around the forest, shaking her hands a few times when they became too cold.

_Now let's see here… Snow, rocks, more snow, more rocks. You know, I think this would be more exciting if it were fall or spring. The view would probably be spectacu-_ Ashley stopped moving her viewfinder as two figures appeared through the snowy haze, their faces hard to recognize from her distance.

Zooming in closer with the little switch on the side of the metal apparatus, Ashley did a double take as the two figures' faces came into focus. "Well hello," she breathed out as she zoomed in even closer, watching as Mike slowly caressed Emily's cheek with peaked interest, "Somebody's getting a little friendly and not in the friendzone type of way…"

Emily clutched at Mike's forearms as Ashley zoomed out a little, briefly stepping away from the viewfinder to rest her eyes before looking back through the tiny holes and at the ex-couple, stating simply, "They may need to check the expiration date on their big breakup." EVERYBODY had known about their breakup (_you should have seen Twitter and Facebook_) and almost EVERYBODY had known that Mike had gotten with Jess almost 6 months back and Em with Matt just 4. But, what Ashley hadn't known, and guessed that nobody else had known either, was that Mike and Em still had feelings for each other.

And she guessed it was supposed to have stayed like that.

She moved the viewfinder away from the pair, giving them some privacy before things became too personal for her liking. Suddenly, the snow and rocks seemed far more interesting then they had prior and she looked at each clump extensively, trying to erase the image she had just seen from her brain. _No need to get dragged into all that drama._

AHHHHHH!

"Oh God!" Ashley exclaimed as she stepped away from the viewfinder with her right over her chest, the sudden close up of Matt's face scaring her far more than she would have liked to admit, "God! Urgh!"

Matt's laughter filled the little pavilion as he jogged around to where Ashley was standing, Ashley watching him come up the steps with wide, green eyes. She grabbed her arm and hugged herself as Matt said with a laugh, an apology written on his face, "Hey, whoa! Sorry about that there. Sorry Ash. I didn't mean to, uh, scare you-"

"Geez Louise, Matt!" Ashley exclaimed again with a wave of her right arm in Matt's direction, pursing her lips together as she slowly calmed down. _That was just Matt. No big deal._

"Well I DID mean to scare you, sorta scare you. But, not like, for REAL scare you…"

"Oh my Gosh. Oh my GOSH," Ashley replied as she slapped Matt in the arm playfully, placing both hands in her hips as she turned away again quickly.

She felt Matt put a hand on her shoulder and felt instantly better. _It's just Matt_. "Wow. Man, I'm really sorry Ash. Damn," Matt apologised with a smile as he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

Ashley sighed and smiled back timidly. "It's okay. It's fine, it's fine," she said quickly as she lifted both her arms in a 'whatever' motion, willing her heart rate to slow as Matt removed his hand from her shoulder.

Matt looked at her with mirth in his eyes and then asked, "What are you looking at?" Ashley felt her blood freeze. _Oh no._ "See anything juicy with that thing?"

"Uh…"

"Come on. Let me check it out."

Ashley sputtered for a few more seconds, weighing over whether or not she should let Matt look into the viewfinder and potentially see Em and Mike making out down near the rocks. Eventually, knowing full well she might regret it later, Ashley said, "Uh, yeah. Sure. Go- go right ahead. Knock yourself out, I guess"

Matt grinned at her as she backed away from the device, watching as Matt took her place next to the apperatise and peered through. She clasped her hands together and waited.

From the look on his face, she didn't have to wait very long. The redhead bit her lip.

"Son of a bitch! Seriously Emily!? What the Hell, man!?"

"Hey listen. It's probably nothing-"

Matt cut her of with a raise of his arm. "Nothing, you think!?"

"Well yeah!"

"Is it ever just **nothing **with Em?! Ever?!"

Ashley stood flabbergasted for a moment, her mouth open as she replied slowly, "I don't know. I-"

"God DAMMIT!"

Matt abruptly stepped back from the viewfinder, sending the head of it flying forward with a crash, before stomping off the platform with a huff. "Matt," Ashley started, looking through the viewfinder quickly before following him off the platform, following the sound of his boots in the snow as he took off. "Matt, wait!"

* * *

_Sometimes I hit the wall_

_And I fall and I can't stand up_

_And somebody say_

_"hey hey hey, it's gonna be okay"_

She didn't know the song, but she swayed to the beat anyway, her hands laying folded in her lap as she waited with chattering teeth. The station shook every once and a while when a particularly strong gust of wind would whip through the trees, but the idea of leaving her spot on the bench before Mike arrived appalled her. _He better get here soon. Any longer out here and my boots might freeze to the floor!_

Rubbing her hands together and regretting her decision of not to bringing gloves up the mountain, Jess looked up the path to the lodge and sighed, blowing air through her teeth and into the cold mountain air. The blonde lifted her right hand and looked at her nails, rubbing her other hand on her left thigh absentmindedly. She had just painted them before coming up to Canada, choosing the blue base coat and white snowflakes in an attempt to be festive for the otherwise morbid trip.

Nodding her head in approval of her work, Jessica craned her head in the direction of the cable car line, straining her ears as she listened for any noise of the machine moving up the mountain. It was silent.

Jess huffed again and pulled her collar closer around her neck and shoulders. _Seriously? Late, again? _The blonde leaned back on her bench, creating a beat on her leg from her hands that matched the song that echoed through the speakers playing in the station. _Might be old, but not a bad choice. What's the name of this song?_

Looking at her phone that lay on the bench to her left, biting her lip as she thought, Jessica uncrossed her legs and picked up her phone with her right hand. "Alright. Where are you, Mikey?" Jess asked aloud as she opened her phone and went to the messenger app, expecting to see multiple texts from Mike explaining why he was so gloriously late even though he had said he was almost there ten minutes ago. _Nothing?_

Raising a brow, Jessica typed a message, her left hand wringing the braid hanging near her shoulder in between her thumb and pointer finger.

**Me 8.54 pm:** _at this rate michael you are nevr going too find out whats gona happen if you get your butt up here and we go find that cabin by ourselves :(_

**SEND**

THUMP!

Jess dropped her phone with a gasp and hopped to her right with fear, the snowball that had just been thrown at her smushing nicely against the wooden slates of the cable car station. Looking in the direction that the snowball had come from, her grey eyes lit up when she saw who had thrown the ball. She chortled as she said with a grin, "Oh, you did not just do that!"

She stood, brushing off her jeans with a swipe of her hands, as Mike grinned at her and reached down to create another snowball. "Put yer hands where I can see em! We got'cha surrounded!" Mike called with a fake Southern accent, Jess raising her arms above her head in a surrender gesture with a pout as she stepped forward. He tossed the snowball between his hands as Jess walked to where the railing in front of the cable car station was, his grin apparent even through the heavy snowfall.

"But who am I to retaliate? What choice do I, a supple young rabble girl have, but to surrender to the strapping military guard come to take me into custody?" Jess responded with her own fake accent, slowly but surely lowering her hand to where the snow had accumulated most on the wooden railing. When she came into contact with the railing, watching Mike through fluttering eyelashes, her fist closed quickly over the handful of snow and condensed it quickly into a workable snowball.

She hid her creation behind her back with a wide smile as she walked around the railing to her right, taking leisurely steps to ensure to Mike didn't suspect any of her trickery. Mike opened his arms wide in a oh-really? gesture as he said, "Oh well I don't know. When you put it like that- HEY!"

The blonde broke into a sprint, a giggle leaving her heart-shaped lips, as her feet pounded into snow, heading towards the outdoor picnic table with the snowball still firmly in her hands. Seeing Mike run from his spot in front of the station, Jess stopped and chucked the snowball at his face. "Haha!" the blonde cackled as the snowball hit the brunette right in the face, momentarily throwing him off balance.

Jessica dove in front of the picnic table, her lungs burning from the exertion of running and laughing at the same time. The snow dampened her knees as she pulled another snowball together carefully, Mike taunting from his new position behind a tree, "You're gonna pay, you know that?" Jess watched, clamping her lips together to prevent anymore noise from escaping her mouth as the brunette stepped out from behind his tree. "Where are you hiding, little chickadee?" he crooned as Jess rose from her spot, almost slipping on the icy ground, as she threw another snowball at the brunette before breaking into a run once more.

Hearing an impact and a gruff noise, the blonde yelled back with a smile, "BULLSEYE!" She watched as Mike winded up and threw a snowball at her. She ducked swiftly out of the way before the snow could hit her, stopping momentarily to watch Mike shake his head at her with a small smirk. "Oh snap!"

Jess quickly ducked behind a tree trunk and scooped up more snow, her braids hanging near her face as she held the snowball carefully and peered around the tree. Hearing Mike chuckle from behind her old position, Jess rose quickly and called sweetly, "Helloooo? Come onnn…" Mike quickly sprinted out from behind his hiding space, the blonde launching her snowball rapidly in the brunette's direction with a, "Hey Mike!"

He stumbled and had to use his hand to steady himself on the ground as he chuckled lowly, barely audible to the blonde from where she stood, "Okay, okay. You got me. You got me." Jess wasn't even trying to be quiet now, openingly shaking with laughter as she ran to her next hiding spot, ducking down behind a pile of wooden logs that were frozen together and rock solid from the below freezing temperatures. Shaking from the cold and from her mirth, the blonde made another snowball and stood once more, searching the clearing with a playful look.

"You can't hide from me, Michael," the blonde taunted as she looked around the clearing, her eyes lightening up and her mouth pulling into a knowing smirk when she saw Mike's jacket stick out from behind a tree, "I know ALL your tricks!" As he quickly scooched out from behind the tree, barely rising to his feet, Jessica hucked her snowball at him, laughing when her boyfriend quickly dove out of the way with a thump to the ground. "That's right!"

"I'm gonna get you, Jess."

"And then what?" Jess asked with a giggle as she took off back to the cable car station, pumping her arms back and forth as she heard Mike pursue her with a laugh of his own, "No more! No more!"

"Ooh yeah. Oh more! You're goin' down!"

A pair of hands grabbed the blonde's shoulders and she lost her balance as she turned to face the brunette, falling backwards and flat onto her back with a laugh. Mike had caught himself before landing directly on top of her, holding himself above her with his arms. _Oh wow. What a view._ Jess laughed loudly, looking up at Mike with what she hoped to be a sexy face, as Mike said with a grin, "Gotcha! Done, done! Done city!"

The blonde smirked, her hands raised above her head in a flattering manner. "So did I go down?" she asked coyly, watching the brunette's face for any reaction to what she had just said. _It's not like we talked about this for hours earlier today or anything._

Mike gave her a thoughtful look before replying slowly, "Uh, I don't think so."

The blonde smiled and said slowly with a small smile, "I'd think you'd know so if I did." The wink at the end was a nice touch in her opinion and, if Mike's face was any indication, he thought so as well. Mike nodded his head and smirked as Jess continued, "My, my. So are we calling it my favor then?"

Mike shifted above her, moving his hands closer to her shoulders as he replied with a sigh, "You're a worthy opponent, Miss Jessica the Snowball Queen."

"Okay, that's sounds vaguely dirty."

"My lady…"

And then the silence that fell between them was not cold, at least not to Jess. It was hot and electrified and it radiated from Mike's brown eyes in an intensity that warmed Jess's chest. She smiled, watching Mike mirror her expression as he pressed his body downward and brought his lips towards hers. _Well, well, well…_ The blonde was tempted to lean into Mike's touch, to bring their lips together and to just kiss as the snowflakes fell around them. But…

"Argh!" Mike hissed as Jessica brought a handful of snow up to his face, trying to keep a straight face as he leaned away and almost fell into the snow himself. She failed miserably. "Oooohohoo! Okay, you're really gonna get it."

"What am I gonna get?"

Mike smirked back down at her and Jess hid her face in her hands as a grin became etched on her mouth. "Well… I can think of at least one thing," Mike said smoothly, brushing the snow off of his face with right hand and wiping it onto Jess's jacket as she squeaked.

The blonde giggled quietly and asked, "Yeah?"

"But… you'll have to wait until later." _Nope. _Grabbing a fistful of Mike's jacket, Jess pulled him to her chest as he lean downwards himself, catching his lips in her's with a satisfied sigh. She slowly turned her head to allow the brunet better access to her mouth, allowing him to suck on her lower lip as her hands traveled higher until they were draped around his neck. Jessica felt herself get pushed back into the snow, a smirk appearing on her lips as they kissed in tandem with Mike's hands slowly moving to her shoulders and rubbing them gently through her coat.

As they continued to kiss, the snow sprinkled down from the sky, dusting over Mike's jacket and Jess's jeans, and the song from the cable car station, nearing it's end, provided a soothing back noise for them to listen to. One thing was for sure, they weren't going anywhere any time soon.

_Sometimes I hit the wall_

_And I fall and I can't stand up_

_And somebody say_

_"hey hey hey, it's gonna be okay"_


	3. Decisions, Decisions

Nine Hours Until Dawn

"Man, I feel like this mountain gets bigger every time I climb it."

"Oh yeah? It feels the same to me."

Chris rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically, "Come on, you grew up here. It probably feels like it's shrinking!"

Joshua Washington, Aged 20

Hannah and Beth's Brother

Complex

Thoughtful

Loving

Josh pursed his lips as he thought, Chris returning the expression comically with a wide smile afterwards, before saying with a nod, "I guess that's true." His eyes flickered behind Chris and landed on his sister as she walked up the path, unfolding his arms from across his chest and moving around the blond to help with her bag, "This bag getting a little too heavy for you, Hannah Banana?"

His sister, her brown eyes gleaming out from under her hood, gave him a withering look and hitched her bag higher onto her shoulder. "Don't you be breaking out the pet names yet, Joshua," she warned as Josh fell into step beside her, grabbing Chris by the arm as they passed him and continued to walk up the path, "Because I have plenty that I'm sure Chris would LOVE to hear and that you would never hear the end about."

"Oooo, do tell," Chris teased from Josh's side, the brunet sneaking a look at what his friend was doing on his phone, disappointment settling over him when he realized that the blond wasn't doing anything interesting. He was just looking at the settings app. "I'm always looking for new material to hold over Josh the Wash's head," Chris continued with a smug smile, looking away from his phone to widen his eyes in challenge at Josh. The blue irises that peered at the eldest Washington shined even brighter in the frosty moonlight from behind the blond's glasses, something that was virtually impossible to see in the blazing heat that surrounded LA all year long. It looked good.

Hannah laughed and shook her head as the brunet nudged his best friend in the ribs with his elbow with his own teasing smirk. Hard. Chris yelped and Josh raised a brow, stepping closer to his best friend as if to examine the bruise he had just inflicted... And then did it again.

"Dude!"

"What?"

Chris pulled him to a stop, seeming to try and fight a smile that was threatening to appear on his face. Hannah jerked to a stop as well, turning to look at her brother with curious eyes and a timid smile as snowflakes fell around the trio. It was almost an ethereal feeling; It almost felt like they were the only three people in the entire world, even though the eldest Washington knew that the rest of their friends (_?_) were literally right at the top of the path. Josh, for his part, remained stoic, playing his part of the innocent bystander with ease as he mulled over his thoughts.

A moment passed without a word, Josh's gaze turning from the blond's face reluctantly and instead landing on the lodge entrance that stood tall and ominous to his right. He could hear crows cawing in the distance, a bad omen if horror movies had taught him anything, plus the noise of people quietly talking up ahead through the hushed tones of the mountainous breeze blowing through the path. Probably. Unless his mind was deceiving him. Of course, there were the other noises too… But he didn't like to think about those. Not if he could help it, at least. Josh shoved both of his hands in his jean pockets and looked at the ground, leaning towards Chris unconsciously as he felt Hannah shift in the snow behind him. Probably with anxiety. Maybe not.

He wanted to move, but wasn't sure if he actually wanted to go up the final stretch of the path and interact with anyone just yet. Especially with the people he hadn't seen since… Since last year. Well… Anyone except Chris and Han, that is. He looked to his left as Chris tapped away at his phone, back down the path that lead to the cable car station. He could leave if he wanted to. But that wasn't really an option anymore. Unfortunately. He blinked a few times and clenched his hands in and out of fists in his pockets.

"When you going to install some cell towers up here? I'm getting withdrawals already." Josh looked at his best friend, who was busy lifting his phone to the sky with an annoyed look on his face. Josh grinned and took his hands out of his pockets, taking a step forward to clap his friend on the shoulder.

The blond lowered the phone and gave the brunet an unamused look. "You got a spare million lying around and I'll fix you right up," Josh said with a smile, his grey eyes trailing over Chris' face as he lowered his hand and crossed his arms once more.

Hannah, who had been silently jumping from foot to foot behind him, leaned out from behind Josh and said with a coy smile, "_Jess_ has good reception on her phone, doesn't she Chris?"

Chris made a face, a face that Josh read as a look of distaste, and placed his phone into one of the many pockets that adorned his jacket, beginning to climb up the rest of the path without a word in the Washington's direction. Josh matched his steps as he replied with mock annoyance, "Funny you should say that. I think I… ugh. I think I left the money in my other jacket." He pointed behind himself with his thumb and, giving Josh an apologetic look, added, "Oops."

Josh whistled and shook his head with a mournful look on his face. "That's just too bad, Cochise," he replied as they reached the top of the path, his eyes traveling all over the forest and watching the snow fall from the shaking branches in the dark, "I guess that means that you'll have to communicate with someone outside of a phone for a week, huh."

"Don't be melodramatic," Chris retorted.

Josh laughed, but the action felt wrong. It hurt his chest, feeling like someone was squeezing his rib cage and lighting him on fire at the same time. So he stopped as quickly as he started, the sudden loss in the noise jarring him back to reality and out of his head.

Chris gave him an odd look, one that the brunet couldn't read to his own annoyance, and Josh trudged on, pretending that the burning blue eyes looking at him to his left weren't there and that he was all alone on the mountain like he had been for the past three days.

Hannah, for her part, remained mercifully silent on the opposite side of her brother, jumping only once when a snow pile fell from a tree branch and landed into the snow with a plop. Josh briefly looked at her and, recognizing the look of fear in his sister's eyes that he had grown so accustomed to over the past year, grabbed her hand and squeezed tightly, hoping that that small action was good enough to calm her down. It didn't do much for his own anxiety, but, then again, nothing ever did anymore.

* * *

The lodge looked bigger than he remembered. Or maybe it just looked more foreboding in the misty twilight, shadows hanging off the outcropped roof and dragging down the front of the building until they finally sank into the snowy ground in a black puddle. Something that the blond had come to know even from a young age was that the Washington's lodge might have looked imposing during the day, but that was NOTHING to how it looked at night. Chris grinned at his own analogy, his boots crunching over rock and snow as the path leveled out and the lodge stood right before him in all it's glory. _Real poetic Christopher. You need some fucking sleep._

The two Washingtons to his right reached the summit as well, Hannah tripping over one of the final roots hidden by all the snow and Josh helping her by holding her arm until she got her footing. She huffed and quickly walked the rest of the way up the path, Josh's grey eyes landing on the blond's before continuing on. That's when Chris noticed, feeling the blood rush to his face at the fact he hadn't recognized this early, that people were already waiting at the base of the Washington lodge. _Jesus H, how long have they been standing here?_

"Hey guys," Josh said with a wave as he walked into the clearing, Chris' gaze falling first on Matt, who was standing near the end of the path with a pissed off expression on his face, and then on Ashley, who was sitting with her legs tucked to her chest on the steps that led to the Washington's front door. _Is she cold? She can have one of my coats._ "Get up here okay?"

Ashley nodded her head and smiled, though her expression didn't look entirely genuine. "Yeah!" she responded cheerfully, rocking slowly as if to warm herself with that motion. Matt growled angrily from where he stood, turning his back to the newly arrived group as he continued to slowly pace in a line. She paused before continuing, her face becoming sullen as she said, "Well, more or less. But it is so good to see you." That line was spoken directly at Chris, her green eyes catching his and sending sparks tingling down his throat and into his stomach. He wanted to say something witty in response, but instead found himself trudging forward like a zombie and offering a small smile in return. _Smooth as butter. Yeah right._

His gaze returned to eldest Washington when the brunet looked back at him with a question in his eyes, gesturing to Matt with a nod while the latter paced and asked quietly, "'Sup with him?" Hannah, equal amounts of concern written on her face, walked quickly to the steps that lead to the entrance of the lodge and dropped her bag to ground, swiftly turning on her heel and walking to Matt's side without a sound. He turned his head and paused his pacing briefly when Hannah spoke in a hushed tone and placed a hand on his arm, the words impossible for Chris to hear through the wind that whistled in his ears and the crunching of his boots in the freshly fallen snow. He continued past the pair (_And then past Ashley_) and followed Josh as the eldest Washington began to slowly ascend the imposing staircase that led to the front of his family's lodge, rubbing his hands and blowing into them to alleviate some of the cold (_That did fucking nothing_) that permeated the essence of the Blackwood Pines before beginning the climb.

The stairs had been salted, a contertasy that the blond greatly appreciated as he held onto the wooden railing with his left hand just in case, and the snow that had once totally covered the staircase had been almost completely brushed off the stairs from all the wind that had been circulating around the mountain. His boots shook the rickety staircase as he reached a small landing, breathing out and sucking in more air a few times before beginning the second flight, silently regretting his choice in the t-shirt, sweater, rain jacket, and then snow coat combination as his outfit to walk up the mountain.

A few snowflakes flew under the rim of his glasses and stuck to the lens, leaving little droplets of water scattered across the pieces of glass, when he reached the top of the stairwell, Josh already fiddling with the handle on the door and muttering something to himself as Chris approtched. The white beanie on the brunet's head had been tilted sideways from his efforts of trying to open the heavy door and Chris, whipping his glasses off quickly to clean on the hem of his sweater as a distraction, resisted the urge to straighten it.

A few strides later and Chris was by Josh's side, sliding between the brunet and the railing that was put up for decoration on either side of the heavy door, trying to get a better look at the door handle and maybe figure out why it was taking so damn long to open the stupid thing. _How has the door not been fixed yet? Bro, you've literally been up here for three days. It's time to fix the goddamn door._ Josh stopped pulling on the door handle and gave Chris a curious smile as the blond asked loudly with a gesture to the door, "Yo, yo, yo! Are we gonna get things moving up here or what?!"

Josh sidestepped and faced Chris headon, shifting so that he was now leaning against the door by the hip, and responded with out turned palms and twinkling eyes, "I mean, I would if you'd back the fuck away from the door and let me do my shit. But I know standing there and being useless is like this **special talent** of yours, so..." He finished his sentence with a laugh, letting go of the door knob and crossing his arms expectantly with a placide face. His eyes glowed in the grey darkness, dancing with life and amusement as Chris mirrored the brunet's position by folding his own arms across his chest with a shake of his head.

The blond scoffed and replied, his voice dripping with false shock and appall, "I am _wounded_, Joshua. You. Have. WOUNDED. ME." He paused, gauging the reaction his comment had brought to Josh (_Positive. Hell fucking yeah. Score one for Chris._) before continuing with a smirk, "I have many talents, thank you very much, that don't involve standing still and 'being useless'. For example, I happen to be exceptional at Super Smash Bros-"

"Oh my fucking God," Josh cut him off with a wave of his hand and a pointed glare, a look that suited the brunet's face so inatiquitedly that Chris almost burst out laughing. _You do NOT have a face that is meant to frown, J. Save that shit for Em. _He dug his nails into his palms before he could do anything stupid or say something that he would regret. "You fucking cheat in Smash, bro. Don't even try to deny it!"

_Yeah right._ The blond gasped comedically, just for the sake of Josh's ego, and, his right hand shoving the Washington playfully, replied, "How dare you. I have won Smash fair and square every single time we have ever played." _...if you don't count that one time I used the cheats in third grade, just so I could kick your ass as Zelda…_

Josh rolled his eyes and did a really bad Chris impression with his hand while he waited for the blond to finish talking, Chris, multiply times, trying to catch the talking hand in his fist before growing tired and simply grabbing his friend's wrist to stop him from moving his hand annoyingly in front of his face. The skin felt clammy and damp, like Josh had been sweating all day. _How the Hell was it even possible to sweat from your wri- Oh, it's probably from his hands, isn't it? Duh._ Eventually Josh dropped his arm and, as a response, Chris dropped his wrist, his hand feeling cold now that the skin on skin contact had been lost. He shuddered and placed both of his hands under his armpits in an attempt to warm up while Josh looked back down the staircase and to his sister, Chris following his line of sight and humming when he saw what Josh was looking at.

Hannah was talking animatedly with Matt, her hands flying all around her head and clapping together when it was appropriate in the conversation. _Aw. Adorable._ When he looked back at Josh, he was expecting a lot of things, but a gut-wrenching smile as he looked at his younger sister was not one of them. His grey eyes were glassy enough that when Chris looked into them, he could see snowflakes flickering inside their depths as they fell around them. _Oh Jesus..._ "Hey man, you doin' alright?" Chris asked quietly, watching as Josh snapped his head back in Chris' direction and stared directly at him with the depressing smile wiped completely from his face.

The gaze that the Washington held with him was uncomfortable, the heaviness of whatever Josh was thinking weighing on the air and draining any sort of joy that Chris could have gotten if this had been any other situation. The brunet opened his mouth once, promptly closed it, looked at the ground as he put his hands in his pockets, and, after another silence that the blond was tempted to break with a stupid joke (_Even though that's fucking inappropriate. I don't know, maybe he'd laugh?_), finally spoke and raised his head once more, his words spoken all in a rush and making it hard for Chris to decipher them.

"I'm totally fine, Chris. Just… you know. It's just all starting to come back, I guess."

_Bullshit._

"Soo… you wanna talk about it?"

Josh gave him a stern look and turned back to the door, that simple motion hurting Chris' chest more than he would like to admit. "No."

Chris puffed out a plume of frigid air and stepped away from the door as the Washington continued to work on getting it open, Hannah's laughter bouncing off the nearby rocks and trees and echoing into Chris' ear with piercing clarity. _He's not gonna talk if he doesn't want to._ He sighed, a sound that provoked a quick glance from the brunet before he turned back to the door, his fingers working furiously on the lock with a determined look on his face. _No use getting all riled up if you can't change anything._

"So, uh, Matt and Emily are a thing now, right?" Chris began, trying to shift the conversation into safer territory and normally, such as back home in Cali, gossip did just the trick when Josh or Hannah got into one of their funks. _Nobody can resist shit talking about Emily, not even Matt. And especially not Mike, if his story on FaceBook was and IS any indication_. Josh looked up from the door and smiled quizzically, a what-the-fuck-kinda-shift-in-convo-was-that? look gracing his features as he stood straight once more and faced his friend.

Nodding his head in thought, the tiniest bit of gratefulness shining from within his eyes, the brunet wiped his hands on the front of his vest and said airily, "Yeah, so it seems."

Chris looked behind himself, his eyes skimming over all three people that sat below with a mischievous glint, before facing Josh, who acknowledged his shit-eating grin with a quirked smile and crossed arms, and asked his next question lowly, as if he were spilling the secrets of the government to his best friend. Josh had to lean in closer to hear what the blond had to say, but the latter didn't mind at all. "I mean… what does Mike think of that?"

Josh snorted and pulled back, responding animatedly (_Like his sister, my fucking God_) by raising his left arm to pat Chris on the shoulder. "I think Mike's already got his hands full, if you know what I mean," Josh smirked with a wink as he turned back to the door, a confused expression landing on the blond's face as he mulled over the Washington's words.

"I'm sorry, I don't speak Joshese fluently. You're gonna have to repeat that in a language I can understand."

The brunet looked over his right shoulder with an incredulous look on his face, his eyes seemingly searching Chris' for the sign of a joke as the blond gave him a what? look. He popped the collar of his jacket, the fur on the fringe tickling his nose momentarily, as he started smiling uncomfortably under Josh's gaze, wondering why the fuck his best friend was looking at him like he was the stupidest person alive.

Suddenly Josh started laughing, turning back to the door with a shake of his head to fiddle with the lock some more. _Jesus, how long have we been standing out here?_

"Dude, you're such a fucking virgin!"

_...OH._

Chris could feel his cheeks heat up as he looked to the ground in embarrassment.

"If you still want me to translate, bro-"

"I'm good."

"I know how hard it is to understand the ol' Josh Wash sometimes, but really it's no-"

"I said I'm good."

Chris' short response produced a new round of giggles from the eldest Washington, who was leaning his head against the door and rocking slowly as the new wave of laughter shook his body. _Well… At least he's not upset anymore._ Looking up from the ground, Chris saw Josh smiling fondly back at him from over his shoulder. And, even though he was still embarrassed beyond belief, Chris managed to return the smile as he stepped forward to look at the lock his friend had been trying to open for what felt like thirty minutes.

After attempting for the third time to insert the key that would fit into the lock adorning the front door, Josh growled and kicked the door lightly with his right foot, retracting the key and placing it back into his vest pocket. "Dammit. This freaking thing," the brunet muttered as Chris leaned over his friend and tried the doorknob for himself, a confused look gracing his features when the door still wouldn't budge even after he twisted with most of his upper body strength.

"The fuck?" Pulling back, Chris toed the newly fallen snow with his boot and rubbed his palms together distractedly while he watched Josh try to shove the door open with his shoulder. He hissed in pain and rolled his shoulder once he had stepped back, a cracking noise cutting into the night air, and looked up and down the door with a glowering expression. "Is it iced?"

Placing both palms on the door and shoving hard to no avail, Josh took a step back and said with agitation very apparent in his tone, "It has to be." He turned on his heel and began walking back towards the steps that led down to where the others were waiting, pointing behind him with his thumb as he continued with a defensive tone, "I was literally just up here ten minutes ago. How in the fuck did the door freeze in that amount of time?"

Chris shrugged and followed Josh, the latter waiting on the steps until the blond was walking beside him, and replied, "I'd be more concerned on how the door managed to freeze from the inside."

"The drafts up here are crazy sometimes," the brunet responded as they reached the landing, pausing briefly so that Josh could fix the sleeve of his flannel as Chris peered at him hesitantly. _That sounded fucking weird, like he was just monologuing or something. There something you're not telling me, bro?_ Even when the brunet was finished with his flannel, the same one, Chris recognized with a sharp intake of breath, that he himself had worn _last year_, his best friend's grey eyes wouldn't meet his blue ones, instead choosing to look at the ground again with a dull expression.

After a few moments of the two friends just standing in a tense silence, the blond's ears picked up on the sounds of laughter coming from below and suddenly the fact that there were other people on the mountain besides him and Josh all came flooding back to his mind. Nodding his head quickly with an uneasy smile in Josh's direction, Chris began to descend the final flight of stairs as he pulled his phone quickly out of his pocket to check the time. _9:15? It's only been 15 minutes?! Oh God, this is going to be such a long night if we don't get that door open._

Almost tripping on the final step in an attempt to avoid stepping on Ashley, who sat primly to his right with her hands folded in her lap, Chris heard a soft chuckle from behind him and recognized the voice as Josh's. He was tempted to turn around and throw a playful glare at the Washington, but thought better of it when he looked at Ashley briefly and saw a smile morphing over her features at his fumble, a weird feeling squeezing his heart that momentarily stopped all his higher brain functions. "Hey Chris," she said sweetly with a wave of her right hand, the blond stepping out of Josh's way and moving to the left so that he was standing in front of Ashley with a shy smile adorning his face.

"Hey Ash." _And?_ "So, uh, how you doin'?" _Really?_

Ash shrugged, her red hair bouncing lightly on her shoulders, as she brushed off one of the sleeves of her purple jacket and said, "Hm... Good, but I'm a little cold. I think I could use some time curled up by the fire."

_Oh my G- Holy shit._ Chris could feel his face growing warm as he responded quietly, "Yeah... That does sound pretty nice." Ashley's eyes steadily gazed into his, her smile never wavering from her lips, and soon Chris found it hard to resist smiling as well, his right hand itching his nose before turning from the redhead with a burning face.

Seeing the two Washington siblings engaged in a lively conversation with Matt about something or another, Chris trudged slowly over to the small group and silently regretted his choice of leaving Ash's side to join the others. Matt was the first to catch his eye, the blond noting with approval that the jock seemed significantly less pissed off then he had ten minutes ago. _Thank God for Hannah._ "Hey man," he said with a raised hand, Hannah turning from her brother mid-conversation and flashing Chris the toothiest smile he had seen her gave anyone all night. Her brother simply turned his head and gave the blond a look that he couldn't read.

Squeezing in between the two Washingtons, Chris smacked his lips and responded with enthusiasm, "Matt! Been a while!"

The jock simply nodded as an answer, bouncing from foot to foot as he looked back at Hannah while she said with a hint of mischief in her voice, "So Josh tells us that you can't get the door open, huh?" Chris chuckled in embarrassment and stuffed both hands into his jacket pockets, holding his phone tightly in one hand as he tried to force the flush on his face to disappear for the third time that day. Hannah shook her head at his antics, her eyes darting behind him at the noise of a bird taking off before asking, "Have you considered looking for another way in. Like through a window or something?"

"Wait a sec. Are you saying we should break into our parent's lodge?" Though Josh's face looked serious, his voice clearly held a playful undertone as he shifted beside Chris and drew a little closer to give his sister an abashed look, "I'm not getting affiliated with your life of crime, Han. Besides, the windows are probably all locked."

"Probably?" Hannah questioned as she stepped in front of Chris and gave her brother the side eye with a quirked lip, crossing her arms as the elder Washington furrowed his brows and looked at her in confusion. Chris pulled out his phone and looked at the settings again, half tempted to roll his eyes when the WiFi still wouldn't connect even when he adjusted the settings so that the connection would be more preferable. He looked up when Hannah jerked her head in his direction, her hood falling off momentarily, and widened her eyes at Josh. Then she slapped his right arm, raised her hood back over her shortened brown locks, and said delicately, "I think you and Chris should go check anyways… Just to make sure, you know?" She raised her left hand to her chest and said plainly, "I really don't want to freeze to death out here and I can already feel my legs going numb."

"I agree," Matt chimed in, nodding his head and uncrossing his arms to let them hang at his sides. He shuffled his feet in the snow, probably to keep himself warm, and continued, "I'm pretty much down for anything at this point as long as it doesn't involve me standing out in the cold anymore."

Chris breathed out, kinda, sorta wishing that he could sit down instead of going to find a possibly unlocked window on the side of a giant ski lodge, and said with a one-sided shrug, "I'm down if you are, bro."

Josh was still looking at his sister like she had lost her mind, his features all compressed together in what Chris had recognized as the brunet's thinking face, before giving his sister a forced smile (_A very forced smile_) and said cheekily, "I better not get reported for breaking and entering, dearest sister."

"Don't worry, YOU GUYS won't."

_Does he not want me to go with him? That's totally fine by me; I need a fucking rest._

"If you don't want me to go with you man, I can stay here," Chris stated, looking at his puzzling best friend to await his answer. Hannah, about to turn back to her conversation with Matt, looked like she wanted to say something, but quickly thought better of it while she chewed on her lower lip.

A particularly strong gust of wind pushed through the gaps of the trees, whipping the fat snowflakes that have been steadily falling around the eldest Washington as he stared blankly into the forest over his sister's shoulder. Finally, as the wind calmed it's storming charade, Josh looked at Chris, the blond feeling the other's grey eyes drift across his face intently, before smiling and crossing his arms, the confident swagger from when Chris and Hannah had first arrived on top of the mountain returning with full force.

"Safety in numbers, right?" He grinned before taking a step back, pointing down a path that led around the back of the lodge. "Lead the way, Cochise!"

* * *

It didn't take long before his swimming thoughts got the better of him. "Ashley was lookin' pretty hot today, right?" he asked conversationally, the rhythmic sound of their boots stepping into mound after mound of snow as they continued down the path soothing his nerves slightly. See, he could self-sooth if he really wanted to. He was just too busy most of the time for that bullcrap, that's all.

Chris hummed from his place to his left, his body hunched as the wind bit at their faces and blew snowflakes up their noses and into their ears. Josh had to more than once grab his beanie before it blew off his head and was lost into the snow piles that surrounded them. Dr. Hill had said that maybe getting rid of things that were too painful and that reminded him of her might help, but the brunet was definitely not ready for that. He probably never would be. He pulled the beanie further over his ears and trudged on.

Stopping right in the middle of the path and turning his back to the wind, Josh stepped in front of his best friend, who looked at him expectantly, and, trying to keep his face calm and nonchalant, asked lowly with a smirk, "She's like a sleep or hit kinda gal, you know? I just wanna rip that parker right off of her and make snow angels, right?" He laughed once he finished his speal, shifting his weight onto his right leg and searched for a reaction on Chris' face.

The blond didn't disappoint, his expression shifting from one of shock to one of slight annoyance in a matter of seconds. "Hey." He said that part sharply, sharply enough were Josh had to quell the growing anxiety and laughter in his throat by swallowing and dropping his smile to a plain look where his emotions couldn't been read. He'd been perfecting that as of late, it would seem. "Cut it out, man." That part was softer and more in the same realm as pleading would be.

The eldest Washington didn't have to think too hard about what to say next after sensing the blond's discomfort about the person in question. "I mean, if you're not gonna bang her, maybe Mike will take up the case-"

"W-Will you back off already?!-"

"Relax." That reaction was anticipated by Josh. He expected Chris to defend Ashley because that's what people did when they liked someone. It made sense all too well. To cover his discomfort, the brunet jokenly punched Chris on his left shoulder and said lightly, "Just checkin' to see if there's any blood flowing down there."

Chris' face turned a lovely shade of red, a color that was quickly becoming Josh's favorite on his friend, before the blond finally stuttered out, "Y-yeah… I mean..." He looked like he wanted to go on, opening and closing his mouth several times before making a whatever gesture with his hand and deciding to engage with a staring contest with the ground.

Josh smirked again and tried to will all the nasty thoughts that kept drifting up from the recesses of his mind to go away and to leave the conversation at that. But, as he had come to find out more and more lately, he couldn't just let sleeping dogs lay. He needed to know Chris' thoughts on Ashley and if that meant a midnight confrontation in the woods just to stop the questions buzzing in his head, then so be it.

"Listen dude," he began again, Chris looking up from the ground with a sigh and giving Josh an exasperated look while he waited for the brunet to continue with what he had to say, "Look around you. Look at these beautiful mountains. Do you see any parents? I mean, can you imagine a more perfect, ripe scenero just dripping with erotic possibilities? You and Ashley, alone at last! You've laid all the groundwork, you've been a perfect gentlemen. Now, you come in for the kill!" He hadn't meant to get so hysterical over this topic, considering how little he actually knew of his best friend's relationship with his study partner other than what Chris had actually told him back in LA.

So he had spitballed and put in some of his own personal emotions. But Chris didn't need to know that. Ever.

Chris puffed out his cheeks and looked away, the brunet's grey eyes searching the other's face rapidly as he put his hands in his jeans and waited. Their breathing and the screeching wind was the only thing that could be heard for a very long time. Finally, the blond looked back at Josh and muttered with a small smile, "Maybe you're right."

And then the silence in Josh's head became the loudest thing he had ever heard in his whole life, the questions all disappearing in a puff of smoke as if someone had flipped a switch inside the eldest Washington's head. He felt cold all over and shivered for the first time up on the mountain in years.

Smiling, Josh continued, reckoning there was no point in turning away from the conversation now even though all he wanted to do was unhear what he had just heard, "You're a hunter, bro! No fear, no mercy! I mean, she won't even know what hit her!"

"I get it, Josh. You don't need to keep telling me over and over again," Chris snapped after pushing up his glasses, Josh's smile dropping as actual confusion clouded his mind. The questions were back and mummering in the brunet's ears when Chris spoke again, this time with less force, "Look. I'm sorry, dude, but…" He looked up at the sky, Josh following his gaze as if the clouds were going to answer the secrets of the universe, "I just… you know… It's… It's complicated, I guess." He looked back at Josh and fidgeted with the bottom of his sweater that stuck out from under his jacket.

"What's so complicated about having a crush?" It had come so naturally for him, after all.

The blond looked so flustered by Josh's question that if the brunet hadn't just had a breakdown, he would've busted out laughing. "C-can we just stop talking about this, J? Seriously, I'm over it."

"Fine by me," Josh said plainly as he started to walk up the path, listening as the other's footfalls joined his and set a steady beat as they walked through the darkness. The questions also swarmed the eldest Washington's head with sound, but instead of indulging the urge to ask them he ignored them completely. Well, except for one. "So how are we planning on breaking into my parent's lodge, bud?"

"Well I mean we can look for windows right?" Chris' voice still sounded strained, which Josh smiled to himself about while he searched the sides of the lodge for an easy way in, "It wasn't really my plan, so I don't really know what the logistics are."

"You went along with it like it was your plan though." He knew what he was about to say next was stupid, but decided to say it anyway just to appease the nagging sensation tingling the front of his skull. "You better deliver Cochise or else you got four lovely ladies who are gonna be freezing their buns off and, last time I checked, that is not a good way to get laid."

Luckily, Josh heard the blond snort and reply lightly, "Oh shoot. Nobody likes cold buns, especially not me." And then it was just like old times, both of the friends laughing as they worked their way around the Washington's lodge and scanned the wood and stone for windows that could be opened easily.

And eventually, after another five minutes of surveying the property to no avail, a row of windows appeared in the stone wall that made up of the back of the house. The brunet knew those windows led to one of the storage rooms and stopped suddenly, flinging out his arm to catch the blond by his shoulder and pointed at the windows with a smirk. "Bullseye," he said excitedly as he walked over to the window and, testing to see how tall it was by extending his arm up, knocked on the window a few times. "Now the question is, how the fuck do we get up there?"

His eyes fell on a metal cabinet case that had been tossed outside for God knows why just as Chris, pointing to cabinet himself, said, his blue eyes glowing brighter as an idea came to him, "Why don't we just push that under the window and climb up that way?"

The brunet had already thought of that, but he decided to let Chris have the glory of coming up with his idea just to boost the other's ego a little bit. "Well, well, well, we got ourselves a thinker! Nice one." The wink was right there, but, considering what they had already talked about before, Josh didn't want to risk ruining the mood again with his what he presumed Chris would find obnoxious behaviors.

The blond nodded, quickly got on the far side of the cabinet, and pushed his back against the green metal as Josh grabbed the opposite side and pulled. It was a tedious process, the noise of metal grating against rock ringing in Josh's ears and setting his teeth on edge, but soon enough the green cabinet was positioned exactly underneath window in question.

Josh backed away from the cabinet and admired their handiwork as Chris joined him at his right side, looking at the blond with a grin that Chris happily returned before gesturing with right hand and saying with a mock english accent, "Ladies first."

Chris huffed in amusement and said coyly, "Have you even seen me, bro? Not exactly the most athletic guy out there..."

"And neither am I, Cochise. Shut up and get on the box."

Chris raised a brow, shaking his head and muttering, "Yeah well, you're not wearing ten layers," as he stepped up to the box and hoisted himself on top of it, balancing himself by holding his arms out to his sides. That didn't work for very long, the blond tipping backwards with a yelp as he almost slipped on the icy surface while pinwheeling his arms. He righted himself, Josh hovering just underneath his friend in case the blond decided to dive off of the cabinet again, and, gripping the underside of the window, ripped it open with a slam. The noise startled Josh and he momentarily forgot where he was and what he was doing as fear overtook his senses. "Holy shit, that was loud!" Chris called down, his voice sounding narrow and far away in Josh's ears.

Josh glared at his friend and crossed his arms. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't break any of my windows, Christopher."

"YOUR windows, Joshua? Wasn't aware you owned this place..."

The brunet knew that Chris was baiting him; His best friend couldn't lie if his life depended on it. But his pinched mouth and raised eyebrows were too much of a temptation to the brunet. "My family owns the whole friggin' mountain, you idiot. Therefore everything my family owns is technically mine as well and, that being said, I'm gonna beat the shit out of your dumb, fucking face if you put your greasy paws on my windows again." The sentence was darker than he originally meant it to be. He had meant it as a joke.

Chris looked at Josh with an uncomfortable expression on his face, something that the eldest Washington immediately regretted causing, before his playful look returned, raising his hand slowly towards the window again with a taunting look. "You won't do it. You love me too much."

"Dude, just hurry up already. Remember, freezing buns!" He pretended the last conversation hadn't happened, placing his left hand on his hip as he made a shooing gesture with his right. Nope. Wasn't even going to acknowledge it ever again. The buzzing in his head disagreed loudly.

"Yes Sir!" Chris called in a southern accent as he adjusted his coat and placed both of his hands on the window sill. Watching the blond work in silence, Josh placed his right hand in his pocket and played with the key within, looking at the ground and repeating the mantra he had created all those years ago in fifth grade over and over in his head. He looked up at the blond again just in time to watch Chris, quite literally, throw himself head first through the window.

But Josh didn't immediately climb the cabinet to make sure he was okay, which is what he knew a good best friend would do in a situation like this. Or any normal person, for that matter. He stood for a moment, looking back down the path they had walked just a few minutes prior because of something moving in the distance that he figured was all in his head but had to look anyway, and quietly, oh so quietly, walked over to the cabinet and jumped on top of it, using his hands to stabilize himself in his crouched position. From beyond the stonewall in front of him, Josh could hear Chris call, "I'm okay! Just… shoulda paid more attention in climbing class…"

Josh moved closer to the wall, making sure that his head was well below Chris' line of sight, and gripped the stones with both of his hands, a maniacal grin adorning his face as he planned over what he was about to do in his head. Sure it was kinda mean, but he's done worse things over the course of their 10 year friendship and Chris kinda brought it on himself by slamming the window and scaring the shit out of him in the first place. At the very least, the buzzing in his head was now more of a hum as he worked out the kinks of his plan.

"Josh?" There was a shuffling noise on the other side of the wall, like somebody was standing up. The brunet knew that there were work counters right below the window, so all he had to do was wait until Chris climbed on top of one of them and then, when he was least expecting it…

The sound of a light bulb bursting from inside the lodge, throwing the room above Josh into darkness, paused his train of thought, scrunching up his nose in confusion as he listened to Chris make a startled noise and take a step if the echo from his boots was any indication. "Di-did I do that?" Josh heard the blond squeak, his voice sounding shot though it had only been a lightbulb that exploded. Sometimes things just spontaneously combusted up there on the mountain and Josh was used to it by now. The blond, obviously, was not.

"Bro, are you still there?"

The brunet rose into a more comfortable position, his head still below the window, as he heard Chris mutter something to himself and walk steadily towards the windows. Perfect. Just a couple of seconds more… Josh could feel his muscles tensing in anticipation and he flexed his fingers absentmindedly. He heard the noise of somebody climbing on top of something, what he assumed to be the countertops below, and practically buzzed with excitement. Just a little bit longer…

"Josh, where the Hell did yo-"

Rising quickly from his spot on the cabinet, Josh quickly grabbed a fistful his friend's jacket in both hands, who was standing on top of the worktables like the brunet had predicted, and screamed bloody murder at the top of his lungs, shaking Chris aggressively for an added effect. He felt the blond jerk backwards in shock, yelping in fear, before he grabbed Josh's hands to steady himself and almost pulled the brunet through the window. Luckily, through his gawfs, the Washington was able to prevent himself from tumbling head first into the lodge and possibly break his neck on one of the countertops in the fall.

"Gotcha!" Josh managed to wheeze out in between his laughs, his hands turning white from holding onto the blond's ridiculously large jacket as tightly as he was. He grinned and pulled Chris back from leaning precariously backwards over the edge of the worktable, trying to gauge his friend's reaction to his prank by studying his face intently. And, from how close he actually was to the blond right then, that wasn't very hard to do.

Josh could practically feel Chris' heart beating erractly in his chest, his hands already starting to sweat as he held onto the Washington's forearms like he might drop him at any second. As if. Chris stared back for a moment, his face drained of all it's color from the fright, before looking to his right and letting his hands drop to his sides limply. He swallowed. "You're not funny."

"Oh come on! It was kinda of funny!" Josh pretended to look thoughtful for a moment before continuing with a smirk, "AND the perfect payback for slamming the window open and almost breaking it even though it costs, like, $6,000!"

Chris narrowed his eyes and pouted. "Seriously dude? I didn't _try_ to break your window!" Suddenly, he grabbed Josh's arms again and tried to yank him through the window, the brunet holding his ground firmly with a smug smile on his face. After trying a few times to no avail, Chris groaned and muttered, "Enough with that look, Josh Wash. Get your butt in here, so we can go open the door and not freeze to death."

Josh recognized the opportunity to tease and took it in stride. "After you let go of my arms, Cochise, I will get right on that." There was no power in the universe that could stop him from winking after that sentence and, to the Washington's delight, the color quickly returned to his best friends face as he flushed for the fourth or fifth time that day. Grinning like an idiot, Josh leaned in and whispered, knowing full well that he was pushing the line, "You're bein' kinda of gay, Chris. What would Ashley think of you if she saw us now?"

"Sh-shut up!" Chris sputtered as he let go of Josh's arms like they burned him and, in return, Josh loosened his grip of Chris' jacket as giggles bubbled up in his throat, desperate to escape.

But he didn't let them and instead looked at his best friend with a smirk, laying his arms on the window sill, before saying, "You're gonna probably need this to find the front door, huh." He pulled on Chris' left hand and, reaching into the back pocket of his jeans, dropped a lighter into his palm, closing his friend's fingers around it and patting them briefly before backing out of the blond's personal space knowing full well that if he didn't, he might do something he'd regret later on. Noting Chris' confused expression, Josh gestured behind him and clarified, "You know, since the lights busted?"

"You're not coming with?" Chris asked as he opened his palm and flicked on the light, the sudden sparkling flame catching the brunet's grey eyes as he watched it dance in the breeze coming from the open window, "How come?"

"Got some stuff to take care off." As soon as the words exited his mouth, he snapped back to attention as his mind repeated what he had just said over and over again, making sure he hadn't fucked up and said something he shouldn't have. If he had, it would ruin this whole trip and the very reason why he had invited everyone back up to the mountain in the first place. It would pretty much ruin everything.

Chris, for his part, seemed satisfied with Josh's answer and he closed the light with a click, jumping down from the countertop and landing on the floor with an oof. Josh watched his best friend with a smile, willing it to go away when the blond turned back around and gave him an annoyed look. "I'm still mad at you, you know," he retorted as he adjusted his jacket and pushed up his glasses with his right hand, Josh forcing down his smile once again because it wasn't the right time and he knew it.

Josh nodded his head solemnly and replied, "Seldom people understand the irony of a joke unless it's not placed against themselves or it's far enough in the future to understand the comedy of the past."

"Was that a quote?"

"Nah, I just made it up. Pretty sweet, right?"

Chris snorted and looked like he was trying to suppress his own small smile before responding, "Yeah well… Guess that's just the movie director in you." He turned back around and started walking further into the storage room, the sound of his footfalls echoing off the stone walls, before turning around and asking, his voice bouncing off the walls as well, "Do you have anything like hair spray or something in this big place of yours?"

"Upstairs bath, there's some spray on deodorant, I think. Why?"

The blond's face took on a mischievous glow that he tried poorly to hide before he raised the lighter, the flame almost blowing out from his movements, and saying cheekily, "I have a lighter… And we have a frozen door… Soo I was thinking maybe I could melt all the ice off with the lighter and the deodorant."

"You mean like a fucking flamethrower, dude?"

Chris pointed at the brunet with his right hand and replied, "Precisely."

Josh lifted his arms off the window sill, the skin on his arms that was bared sticking uncomfortably to the cold metal as he moved, and called with amusement in his voice, "Jesus Christ. First, you wanna break one of my windows and now you wanna burn down the front door with a fucking flamethrower! What's next, you wanna back up the water pipes and cause them to explode as well?"

Chris made a shocked face and asked with incrediability in his voice, "How did you know!?" The blond then grinned and asked again with a softer tone, "You sure you're not coming? Don't want you to freeze to death out there by yourself."

"Oh are you scared of the dark, Cochise?"

"You wish."

Josh smiled and shook his head, taking a step away from the window to signify that he was leaving. "I'll be there when you open the door, don't you worry." He watched the blond open his mouth to say something, but by then, the buzzing in his head had distracted him enough that he really didn't care what his friend had to say. He just needed to go do his thing _now_.

So he just jumped down from the top of the cabinet, bending his knees to absorb most of the fall, and walked back down the path that led to the others, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he went while he feverishly told himself to relax and to just ignore the person that was following him.

* * *

5th June 1997 - The Alberta Bugle

_**EX-JANITOR CONVICTED FOR ARSON**_

_**SWEARS REVENGE ON MOVIE MOGUL'S FAMILY**_

_By Charlie Scott - Chief Reporter_

**Victor Milgram, 52, was yesterday sentenced to 16 years in prison for aggravated arson, committed on Blackwood Pines. Milgram was employed as a janitor on the mountain's old hotel for 28 years. However, when producer Bob Washington acquired the property, Milgram was fired.**

**In a sensational twist, the sentencing ended with an enraged Milgram screaming obscenities at Washington's heavily pregnant wife, Melinda. Calling her a "f- whore," he vowed to "get all of you, your f- husband and kids," and said he would "make them suffer."**

**Melinda was visibly struggled to keep her composure throughout the case, and later claimed that though she was "upset" by Milgram's threats, she had "full faith in the legal system" to keep her and her family safe.**

* * *

He was really starting to lose his patience, willing his feet to still as he paced in front of the door and rubbed his hands together in irritation. Ashley and Hannah were too busy talking to really pay him any mind, discussing some sort of restaurant in Hollywood with exotic flowers as desserts he didn't know anything about nor wanted to know anything about.

He kept looking back down the path that led to the cable car station, his nostrils flaring every time he thought about Emily. _And about that fucker Mike, who just has to take everything from everyone at no expense to himself. Seriously, what the FUCK! Emily is with ME now, not him!_ He stomped his feet into the deck with more aggression as he paced, letting his frustration out with his movements instead of taking a swing at one of the trees or worse, at one of his friends.

He didn't notice that the girls had stopped talking until Hannah placed a hand on his arm, stilling him almost instantly, and said gently, "She's probably on her way. I wouldn't worry about it." Matt looked at her, feeling a lump grow in his throat the more he thought about Emily with Mike, and shoved his hands into his letterman jacket, the soft tissue on the inside helping him relax his fists a little.

Ashley nodded, her green eyes dripping with sympathy, as she added with a small smile, "Yeah. And I'm sure what you saw earlier was nothing. Why she would just cheat on you like that when you're such a sweet guy?"

_Sure I might be nice, but Mike's the sweet talker. He can get anyone to do anything if he puts his mind to it._ "I don't know why she would," he replied sullenly, jumping from foot to foot from the anxiety he felt blooming in his chest and from the cold that was slowly numbing his… everything.

"Exactly," Hannah concluded, pulling the jock into a hug as she squeezed and said sadly, "I'm really sorry that this is tearing you up so much. Believe me, I know the feeling." _And I'm so fucking sorry for that._ She pulled away, a glassy look covering her normally warm brown eyes, but kept her hand on his right bicep while they continued to wait, the constant presence next to him quelling some of Matt's anger.

Ashley, hugging herself as wisps of smoke escaped from her nose with every breath, shuffled over to Matt and, her right side leaning against Matt's left for comfort, said offhandedly with a whatever tone in her voice, "If Emily can't see how amazing you are, that's her loss and besides," she lowered her voice and leaned in, pulling her hair back from her face with a cheeky smile, "If she thinks that Mike is better than you in any way, there is obviously something wrong with her because Michael is a _douche_."

Matt let out a burst of laughter as Ashley smiled, the brunette on his other side holding her right hand over her mouth as her body shuddered with laughter. _Or was it the cold?_ "You think too highly of me Ash, but thank you for the compliment," he replied, a grin briefly overtaking his face while he rocked on his heels and almost slipped on the ice covering the top of the wooden floorboards. Once he righted himself with an embarrassed groan, he teased, "I didn't know you knew the word 'douche'."

"I didn't know you could swear _at all_."

"Oh shush it," Ashley responded to Hannah and Matt's teasing, her hands placed delicately on her hips as she shook her head with a tight lipped smile in their direction. Hannah smiled back and shrugged her shoulders while Matt kicked a little of the snow under his boots at Ashley, who gasped when it landed on her tights and melted instantly.

He grinned, his thoughts momentarily forgetting Em and Mike and what they could possibly be doing together alone in the middle of the woods at night. And then, as quickly as they left, they came flooding back, Matt suddenly scowling and tapping his left foot impatiently after spotting Emily's bags at the bottom of the staircase where he had left them. _Let her bring her own damn bags up to the lodge or, better yet, ask ol' Mike to do it for her._

Han and Ash exchanged glances, both of their smiles falling before they turned back to stare at the door. He felt bad for ruining the mood with his anger, but… _I can't help it! Trust me, you'd feel the same way if this ever happened to you two!_ Hannah, ever a good friend, kept her firm grip on his arm. And he was very grateful for that.

_What was that?_

There was a shadow inside the lodge that he could see steadily getting closer and closer to the door through the little window etched into the wooden frame. _No seriously, what is that?_ Hannah must have seen it also, for she tensed up and, letting go of Matt's arm, tiptoed over to the door with a worried expression on her face. Ashley watched with a muted expression on her face and asked, "What? What do you see?"

Hannah looked back briefly and called into the open window, "Chris? Josh? Is that one of you?"

"Aw, how'd you know it was me?!"

Hannah visibly relaxed before knocking on the door and asking sharply, "I'm glad to hear it, Christopher. But, shouldn't you be getting the lock open or something?"

_Finally, my fucking God. _Matt walked forward quickly and, Hannah moving to the right so that he could see in the window and, seeing the blond steadily hold out a can of deodorant, asked with a note of trepidation in his voice, "The Hell are you gonna do with _that_?"

Chris looked up, his glasses foggy, with a blank expression. _At least it's warm inside._ The blond then blinked and replied to the jock like he was the stupidest person in the world, "I'm gonna burn the lock off. Move out of the way!"

Ashley perked up when she heard that and, stepping up behind Matt, called with hand over her mouth, "Finally! We're freezing our buns off out here!"

Matt heard the echo of Chris' laugh as he stepped away from the door, pulling Hannah along with him by her hand and glancing behind him once to make sure he didn't step on Ashley's boots or push her down the stairs by accident. _There's no need in losin' a limb today._ "That sounds kinda sketchy, man," he called into the door, the dull sound of a lighter and a can being opened igniting his concern and prompting him to take another step back, this time almost falling down the icy stairs himself.

The smell of fire drifted into the air while Chris worked, the wooden smell escaping the door and traveling into Matt's nostrils so much so that he was tempted to block his nose with his forearm. _He better not burn the whole door down…_

The sound of Chris flicking off the lighter brought Matt back from his thoughts, the jock taking a step towards the door with his hands jammed back into his pockets. A hiss of pain was admitted from behind the door and then the wooden piece was opened, Chris standing there with his lighter as he cradled his right hand to his chest. "Fucking burned myself," he muttered, Matt looking on placidly and nodding his head at the blond's statement. _Um yeah. I could've fucking told you that was gonna happen, dumbass._

Hannah shook her head and said disapprovingly, "You better watch out when you play with fire. You never know when you're gonna get burned."

Chris looked at her, raising his other hand and saying with a huff, "I'm aware of that statement, Han. I didn't burn myself with the fire though; The doorknob was just really hot, that's all."

Matt huffed and said hurriedly, his patience and tolerance for the cold growing paper thin, "Right, right. Can we just go inside? I'm freezing and my back is killing me from carrying all of Em's shit up the mountain."

Nodding in agreement, Ash continued, a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at the blond, "Yeah. We gotta get that fire going, right?" _Wow, she isn't even trying to be subtle. Good for her, but… Chris? Really?_

The blond, for his part, inhaled sharply before widening the door, Matt noticing a small blush creeping up his neck, and stepped to the jock's right before saying, "Uh yeah. D-don't let me stop you. Come on in." Hannah turned her head slightly as Matt shuffled passed, widening her eyes in amusement that the jock returned readily with a bonus yawn at the end. She, at his response, grinned and Matt felt a small smile crossing his features as he stepped over the threshold and into the Washington's lodge.

A blur of fur erupted from behind the door right as Matt was stepping up through though, his first instinct to jump backwards with a yell and nearly slipping on the ice for the third time that night as he did. Luckily, he caught himself with his left hand before he completely fell down, a scowl adorning his features as he glared at Chris. _Oh my motherfucking God! This night has just been fucking perfect, hasn't it?! _"Man, I swear to God…" he began, righting himself and brushing off his jacket with his right hand while he confronted Chris about what he assumed to be one of his pranks. _Him and Josh and their fucking pranks. I am SO over all of this!_

Chris' glasses were even more fogged up as he stuttered with his hands raised in a surrender gesture, "I-I didn't even that was there! I swear!"

Matt blinked and listened as the two girls behind him giggled in amusement, Hannah's laughter especially loud in his ears. "Wha- What was it? Are you okay?" Ashley asked as she stepped up next to Matt in the threshold, her quiet laughs bouncing off the walls of the large room in front of the jock.

His eyes still wide from the initial shock, Chris managed to fumble out as he folded his arms across his chest and peered out the open door with a look of confusion, "It was like… A bear or a tiger or somethin'." _What? No it wasn't. It was too small for that._

"Relax, the both of you," Hannah called, looking back down stairway with a smile on her face, "It looked like a cute baby wolverine." She then turned back to them, raising a brow and asked as Josh, covered in snow, jogged up the steps behind her, "You're both gonna need to grow a pair if you two are gonna be able to stay up here the entire week."

"Listen to what the lady said," Josh chimed in, reaching the top of the stairs and placing an arm on Hannah's shoulder with a grin, "Don't worry, you'll be big boys soon and this shit won't affect you anymore." With that, Josh quickly joined the group as they stood on the threshold, sidestepping Ashley and then Matt before turning back around and beckoning them all to follow. "Come on, guys! Don't wanna let out all the cold air!"

Upon stepping completely into the lodge, his boots muffled by the sound of a thick carpet that was laid out near the front of the door, Matt felt a wave of heat hit his body and he instantly sighed, some of the anger he held in his chest melting away with each step he took farther into the building. The snowflakes trailed after the group as one by one they all stepped inside, Hannah shoving her brother playfully from behind before turning and closing the door behind her, locking it as she went.

Following Josh out of the entrance room, grey and sparsely furnished, and to the left, the jock found himself returned to the main living room of the lodge, with it's high ceilings and grand staircase that rose up from his right which led up to the second floor. All the couches and tables looked the same and were in the same place as they had been last year, except for the missing white sheets that used to cover them. Matt didn't know whether to be appalled or relieved at the familiarity of the living room.

Josh, walking further into the spacious room, opened his arms in welcoming gesture as he spun around and said dramatically, "Home sweet home, am I right Han?"

"'Sweet' is not the word I'd use," Matt snipped before he could stop himself, walking past the Washington and heading towards the closest chair he could find with an air of irritation surrounding him. _Who the fuck says that after… after what happened last year?_ He sat down with a plop, sinking low into the pillow that cushioned his butt after hiking all the way up the mountain. _By myself._ He closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat even more, trying to shut off his mind for a few moments and listening to the conversation that flowed around him.

"Oh my gosh, it is soo nice to be inside. Even though it's still kinda freezing in here..." _Ash_.

"I'll get a fire going then." _Josh._

Deciding to add his two cents and to not seem like a complete asshole, Matt piped up as he crossed his arms and said quickly, "This place barely looks any different."

"Yeah, nobody's been up here." _Josh again._

"Even with all the police coming in and out?" _Ashley again._

"Hm, not a lot of action up here lately then." _Chris._

"...Nope." _Josh again._

Matt sighed and, deciding he didn't want to listen to his friends talk about anything at all, tried to block them out. _I think I just need to sleep. I'll... feel better in the morning, I'm sure._

His thoughts were broken as the front door slammed shut from the other room, the jock's nose wrinkling with distaste as he heard footsteps approach the living room.

"What's up, party people!?"

"Heyyy!"

_Oh… FUCK no._

Matt sat up quickly, his eyes opening and briefly blinding him because of the moonlight coming in from one of the windows, and watched as Mike and Jess sashayed into the living room, the former all confident swagger and the latter beaming with a wide smile. The jock had to inhale deeply and clench his hands at his sides to prevent himself from jumping Mike right on the spot.

"Make yourself at home, bro," Josh called from his place by the fire, trying to push logs into the fireplace and get them lined up in a way that would help them ignite easily.

Mike saluted Josh and went to follow Jess, calling over his shoulder a smug, "Will do!"

_Oh fuck this._

"Yeah, come on in. Take a load off. Have whatever you want." Matt was on his feet and approaching Mike before he even realised it. "You just take whatever you want anyway, right?"

He was right in front of Mike now, noting that he was a good few inches taller than the brunet, as Mike gave him a nonchalant look and said good measuredly, "Whoa. Easy there, cowboy." He chuckled at the end of his sentence and that was the final straw for Matt.

"Mike, stay away from my girlfriend."

"Dude - What are talking about?"

"STAY AWAY from Emily!" _Not that hard to understand!_

"Emily?! Why would I want anything to do with Emily?!"

Matt knew that the others were watching their exchange. He could feel their eyes boring into them from behind his back. But, he really couldn't give a shit at that point.

He walked right up to Mike, right up in his face, and spit out, "Quit being such a dick, man! Nobody wants you here!"

"Seriously, what's your problem, meathead!?"

The brunet pushed him in the shoulder. And that was that.

"You son of a bitch!"

Matt swung his right arm over Mike's neck and pulled him into a strangle as his other hand grabbed the brunet's face. Mike shouted out and grabbed the jock's forearm to try to wrestle himself free, but Matt knew that he was bigger and stronger than Mike. _For all his charm, if there was one thing the great Mike Munroe couldn't do, it was win a fight._

Matt heard shouting over the rush of thunder in his ears, Hannah's and Jess' voices standing out the most in the chaos. But Matt couldn't really hear them too well or, more likely, chose not to listen to their cries. All he wanted to do was beat the brunet in his grasp to a pulp. And, until two arms wrapped around his torso and forcefully ripped him off of the former class president, he most likely would have, his vision glowing red in the hazy grey of the living room as he stumbled backwards.

"What the Hell is wrong with you two!?" Turning and seeing Josh standing in between him and Mike, his arms extended to his sides to prevent any further fighting with a look of irritation on his face, Matt bunched up his fists and made a move to attack Mike again. This time though, small hands wrapped around his arm and held him back. Matt turned around to promptly scream at whoever was grabbing him, and possibly beat them up too because he just need to punch _something_, but steadied himself when he saw Hannah, her brown eyes wide and her mouth parted in shock, holding his arm tightly.

"We didn't come back here just to tear each other's heads off!" Josh was talking again, lowering his arms slowly as both men began to calm down, "I mean, we came here to have a good time, right?" He turned to Matt, his grey eyes cold as he gestured for him to sit back down on his chair and then doing the same with Mike for the couch. "So… Let's have a good time, alright?" Josh then turned back around and headed back to the fire, muttering something under his breath that Matt didn't catch as he sat back down on his seat and put his head in his hands. _Greaat job, Mattie. Really making friends out here today._

The jock felt the seat shift as someone else sat down and he raised his head to see Hannah fold her hands in her lap and give him a blank smile. He held her gaze for a little bit, before returning his head to his hands and sighing deeply. _Really should have just gone to sleep._

The room was silent, other than Mike and Jess softly whispering to each other from Matt's left from their seats on the couch, and it left an uncomfortable feeling in the air that Matt desperately wanted to escape from. Soft footsteps came from the entrance room and broke the silence, to which the jock was extremely grateful for. But then he heard Emily's mocking chuckle and felt like screaming all over again.

"Oh my God. That is SO gross. Are you _trying _to swallow his face whole?"

"Em..." Matt lifted his head and tried sitting up straight as he watched his girlfriend cross her arms and glare at Jessica from where she sat on the couch next to Mike, her lips curled into a sneer as the blonde curled up with her boyfriend.

Emily turned to him with a mocking question in her eyes and asked while extending her hand towards the couple, "Seriously, can she be anymore obvious?" She rolled her eyes and continued with a glare, "NOBODY wants in on your territory, honey."

The blonde slowly rose to her feet and asked with a smile adorning her face, "_Excuse me_. Did you say something?"

Emily laughed and spit out, "Oh, did you not hear me? Was your sluttiness too loud?" Matt sighed and looked up at the ceiling, wave after wave of annoyance washing through him as he listened to the exchange with a heavy heart. He felt Hannah take his hand and squeeze reassuringly, silently thankful for the small amount of comfort he was receiving from the younger Washington.

Jess was slowly making her way around the coffee table in front of the couch, her eyes narrowing as she replied sweetly with a gesture to Mike, who was watching the two girl's exchange with interest, "Sounds like somebody's bitter that she didn't make the cut…"

"Yeah, cause it's all a big cattle call with that dream boat." She laughed before snarking out, "Congrats! You're top cow!"

Jess huffed and shot back, "Cuts real deep calling Miss. Homecoming a cow!" She might have looked calm, but Matt could see the anger boiling underneath her grey eyes with a distinct clarity. _She looks about ready to slug someone and that someone's about to be Emily._

So Matt piped up, scooting to the edge of his chair before saying quietly, taking his hand out of Hannah's as he spoke, "Hey… You're making everyone uncomfortable, Jess." He didn't dare continue, Mike's furious expression on the jock detering him from saying anything else that might cause another physical fight between them. _Em, literally just back off._

Jess turned angrily to Matt and, placing a hand on her hip, snapped while she played with one of her braids, "Jealous much? Emily too frigid for you too?" Her gaze, hard and cold, fell on Han and Matt froze, knowing exactly what was coming next and trying to mentally will her to not say it, "But it looks like Han has already got you covered, doesn't she?" _Fuck my life. _Out of the corner of his eye, the jock saw Han tense up, squeezing her hands into fists as she bit her lip and looked at ground. _Jesus fucking Christ._

He could also see Josh, not so subtly watching the cat fight between Jess and Emily, turn his expression to Matt with a frown on his face, the jock wishing he had just stayed quiet and let his girlfriend deal with Jessica alone so that all the attention wasn't on him and the brunette next to him. _You'll be lucky if you don't get kicked out by morning, shithead._ Emily looked at Jess like she wanted to kill her, narrowing her eyes and clenching and unclenching her jaw methodically as the blonde laughed and said as she turned back to her boyfriend, "Whatever you have to say, I don't care because I don't give a shit what you think about me and Mike."

"At least I can think. 4.0 bitch, honor roll. Suck on that when you're trying to sleep your way into a job."

"Who needs grades when you have all the natural advantages you can handle?"

"Oh please-"

"You couldn't buy a moldy loaf of bread with your skanky ass!"

Emily laughed as she took a step closer to the aggravating blonde and tilted her head, snapping, "Are you serious? Do you think that's insulting?!"

Turning from Em abruptly, Jessica looked at Mike, an innocent look on his face, as she snipped and pointed at the other girl, "That bitch is on crack or something!"

_Fuck it._

"Jessica, you need to shut your mouth, okay?!" Matt shouted, shaking his head in annoyance before folding his hands in his lap and continuing with a exaggerated sigh as he looked down, "God, you're so fucking annoying sometimes!"

"Why don't you chill the fuck out, hothead." That warning growl from Mike, who was sitting up in his seat on the couch as he stared daggers at the jock, cooled Matt's temper slightly, breathing out deeply as he bit the inside of his cheek with anger. _I just wanna land one good hit on that motherfucker. That's it._

Jess held up her hand to the brunet and, stepping forward with a nasty expression on her face, snapped angrily at Matt, "NO. You're the one who needs to keep your nose out of other people's business!" Matt huffed and looked back with incredibility written on his face. _What a fucking hypocrite!_

"I'm about to get right up in your business, you bitch!" Emily stepped right up to the blonde as she pointed an accusatory finger at her chest, her black hair frazzled from all the energy drifting around the room.

"Are we about to get real? Because I am DOWN to get real!"

"Stop it!" Right as Emily, eyes blazing and fists clenched, looked like she was about to hit the blonde in front of her, Josh's voice cut through the thick of the argument and dropped the room into a deadly silence. He rose from his crouched position in front of the fireplace and stepped forward, brushing his hands off as he asked angrily while gesturing to the two feuding girls, "Seriously?! This isn't helping at all! This is NOT why I invited all of you back up here this year!" He stopped walking and pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing, "If we can't get along for ten fucking minutes, then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right?"

Hannah shifted on her seat and said quietly, looking in between Mike and Jess with nervousness radiating from her eyes, "Maybe Jess and Mike could go check out the guest cabin in the far end of the woods? It's pretty secluded and cozy…" She trailed off, wringing her hands her lap as every pair of eyes in the room turned to look at her. _She looks like she's about to cry._ Matt, guilt beginning to wash over him in waves, reached out his hand to take one of the brunette's and comfort her like she had for him, but a sharp look from the elder Washington, his eyes narrow and arms crossed, stopped the jock in his tracks. He returned his hand to his lap and resigned himself to his guilt with a sigh.

He watched as Mike stood up from the couch and said vaguely in Han's direction, "Yeah, yeah. Alright," before taking Jess's hand and gently pulling her away from Em, a scowl still on her face as she was dragged away.

"Any place without that whore is fine by me!" Jess called over her shoulder, locking her fingers with Mike and smiling widely at him. The couple walked quickly to the left towards the doors that would lead to the trail which would in turn led to the cabin, Matt watching them intensely to make sure that nothing happened again before they got out of the spacious room. Right before she stepped through the door's threshold, however, Jess lowered her smile and flipped Em the bird, slamming the door with a bang that echoed around the living room. Emily, for her part, simply snorted and turned to Matt, smiling until her gaze landed on her Hannah.

Then her eyes grew cold all over again.

Coughing uncomfortably, the brunette rose unsteadily and, pulling down her sweatshirt by tugging at the hem, began to quickly walk towards the grand staircase, creating a wide berth between her and Emily as she walked around the other girl with her hands in her pockets and her head dropped down. "I, uh, am just going to bring my stuff to my room," she called back to group, Matt rising from his seat to stretch his legs and to watch the brunette brush past Chris and Ash (_Who had been standing near the stairs the whole time, the fuckers._) and start to ascend the staircase as the pit pat of her boots echoed around them.

She didn't look back once.

Emily watched Han go, her arms uncrossing once the brunette was out of her line of sight and her gaze drifting to the jock in front of her. She stared at him for a few moments, her face resting in a contemplative state as she turned around and started looking for something near the entrance to the living room, walking slowly and with a precision that made Matt feel anxious all over again. _Damn, I just really need some sleep_.

"Glad that's over, huh?" Josh was looking at the wall when Matt turned to his left at the Washington's voice, his expression blank, except for the clenching of his jaw, while he rubbed his hands together again as if to clean them from some invisible liquid.

When the brunet turned to look at him, his grey eyes glowing through the darkness, Matt felt a cold sweat appear on the back of his neck because at that moment, Josh… kinda looked unnatural. Maybe it was the time of night that was spooking him or maybe it was just the lack of lights inside the Washington's lodge. But whatever it was, something just seemed off about the brunet that the jock couldn't quite place. One thing he knew for sure, though, was that he did _not_ want to get kicked off the mountain for the second year in a row. Especially in the middle of a snowstorm.

"I mean, yeah. That was really crazy, dude."

"Really crazy and really stupid," Josh corrected and then suddenly his face was normal again, the strange look that had adorned it not two seconds ago completely wiped away as if it had never existed to begin with.

Matt nodded in agreement and made a move to sit back down again, pointing at the fireplace briefly before asking with hesitation, "So Josh, uh, can we get this fire going?"

"Where are my bags?"

_Nooooooo…_

Matt tried to play hookie for a moment longer, plastering a look of shock on his face as he straightened up before asking innocently, "Huh?" Emily stood near the door with her hands on her hips, a confused expression pressed onto her face.

"My bags! The little bags with the pink patterns, the ones I got on Rodeo? Matt, are you listening?" She looked up to the ceiling as a shrill laugh of disbelief escaped her throat, her eyes piercing through Matt when they returned to the floor and shooting him with what felt like daggers in his throat, "Oh my God! Don't you remember?! Next to the Italian shoe place where I got the stilettos and you knocked over the rack while you were drooling all over that girl at the counter-"

"Well… She was asking about my letterman jacket…"

"Right, because she gave a shit about your 'designer' letter jacket."

_Oh my God. This night is just getting better and better_. Matt could feel anger start to swirl threateningly in his gut as he pulled at the sleeve of his letterman jacket possessively. A lot of things started whirling in the jock's head as he watched his girlfriend pace with aggravation while she continued to glare at Matt curtly. The tapping of her boots on the floor was starting to fill his head with a dull pounding noise and Matt just really, really, _really _wanted it to stop. He asked his next question quietly (_As quietly as I can muster_), trying to see if Em would be more compassionate if he acted like a wimp just for her, "Em, why do you hate my jacket?"

"Matt, I NEED my bags!"

_Alright then. That's how it's gonna be? Fine._

"Then go get them yourself!"

Em narrowed her eyes at his tone and snipped with a grimace, "That sounded very suspicious of you, Matthew. Do you know where they are?"

"Did you check the bottom of the fucking staircase?! Or were you too busy sucking face with Mike to even notice?" The words tumbled out before he could stop them, momentarily forgetting Em didn't know anything about him knowing about her and Mike. But, noticing the fumble too late, he clenched his fists tighter and stared back his girlfriend with as much intensity as he could muster.

Emily widened her eyes briefly, seemingly startled by the jock's outburst, before regaining her composure and quickly snapping back, "What the fuck are you talking about, meat for brains!? I came up here by myself-"

"Cut the bullcrap, Em! I saw you and Mike through the viewfinder with Ashley! I fucking _saw you_! And if what I saw is anything to go by, I think you lied to me all those months ago when he said you were over Michael motherfucking Munroe!" He felt restless and began to pace while he shook his head at Emily with a furious look on his face. "I can't do this anymore, Em! You've made your choice! Now it's my turn to make mine!"

"Wait, wait, wait." She looked at Matt cautiously and took a step forward with outstretched arms, the startled look returning to her features, as she asked bitterly, "Are you… **Breaking up with me?**" Matt didn't respond and instead focused all his energy on not punching something or rushing out of the room to splash cold water on his face. Emily laughed, her face growing flushed and angry as she sputtered out, "Well that's just fucking rich, isn't it?! You're not even going to listen to MY side of the story-"

"Did you or did you not fuck him!? That's all I want to know!"

There was a very long pause, Emily opening and closing her mouth a dozen times as she frantically looked around the room for support from anybody that was willing to give it. Nobody stepped forward and the longer the silence dragged on, the heavier the stone weighing on Matt's chest became.

Finally he looked at Em directly in eyes and watched as they glistened with tears as he whispered, "Well then… I guess I have my answer…"

"Matt please." It was the first time Matt had ever heard Emily speak to him with a choked up voice. She reached for him, a small tear slipping down her cheek, but, before she could make contact, Matt jerked suddenly out of the way and turned his back to his now _ex_-girlfriend with a sigh. _I… I gotta go… I'm gonna go get a drink. _

So he walked away, going left and heading towards the kitchen with a heavy heart with the intent of spending the rest of the night alone.

And the only thing that followed him was the sound of sniffling and the painful reminder of what he had just done.

* * *

The door opened after the first try and soon after he had stepped over the lodge's threshold, the cold air from the frigid mountain hit him harshly in the face. Snow bounced off the wooden walls that protected the back deck on all sides except for directly in front of the brunet. In that direction, the mountains rose gloomily and wicked as white snow dusted their caps, clouds swirling around their peaks like a hurricane, and shrouded some of the more distant mountains from his line of sight.

He quickly closed the door behind him after Jess stepped through, the flashlight he had brought with him swinging lazily from his left hand, and stepped further out onto the wooden boards to follow his girlfriend to the railing straight ahead of them. This railing prevented any potential accidents, such as tumbling off of the edge of the deck and into the faraway snow below, from occurring when visitor's gazed at the looming mountains during the wee hours of the morning or at the darkest hour of midnight. _For real? It just looks kinda foreboding._

Fixing his brown hair by combing the strands upward with his right hand, Mike shook his head once he had finished and declared with a resigned sigh, looking at the back of Jess' head apologetically, "I think we just got exiled."

Jess spun on her heel and replied immediately with a coy smile, her arms raised in a i-don't-know gesture as she quirked a brow, "I think what you meant to say was that we just got _sexiled_."

The brunet laughed as Jess smiled and turned to continue walking to the wooden railing up ahead, Mike watching her ass move in her skinny jeans with interest before saying flippantly, "Works for me." Watching the blonde in front of him peer over the railing, clutching the piece of wood with both hands, and then to her right, looking at the dark woods that were still apparent even as huge snowflakes ripped through the frosty air, Mike stepped towards her as she suddenly clutched at her arms and shivered from the cold.

Obviously hearing his footsteps, she looked over her shoulder, her cheeks a rosy, wind whipped color, and asked lightly, her grey eyes sparkling even as her teeth chattered, "How far is this cabin anyway?" She turned to look back at the forest, letting go of herself to tap on the railing impatiently, "It shouldn't be that far, right? Because I don't think I can stand being out in this cold for much longer…"

"Yeah well," the brunet began as he sidled up behind the blonde, wrapping his arms protectively around her torso as she leaned back with a hum. _Crap. She's shivering a lot._ "I don't think the cabin is that far down the trail. Maybe a fifteen minute walk if we hustle."

"Fifteen MINUTES!?" Jess huffed, the brunet watching as vapor left her lips as she groaned in annoyance, "Michael, that is a long freaking walk for this type of weather!" She sighed dramatically and leaned back further into his arms, the brunet feeling most of the pressure he was coming into contact with from her ass as she wiggled her hips with a puff of laughter. Mike tightened his hold on his girlfriend and tried to contain the growl rising in his throat, pushing his pelvis forward as a response and burying his face in her neck. Jessica exposed her neck more, Mike nipping gently at the soft skin, before muttering, "And if we don't get there soon, I can't guarantee that I'll be as willing as I was back at the cable car station..."

_Hot damn._

Raising his head slightly so he would be able to talk, the brunet, swaying their bodies from side to side with the wind, mumbled lowly in the blonde's ear as his fingers tightened around her stomach, "Like I said, not too far if we get a move on." He flipped her around slowly, her smile small and sexy as Mike pushed her backwards into the railing and got in between her legs, her arms winding comfortably around his neck while Mike continued with his own seductive look, "This cabin, by the way, happens to be the coziest, most romantic love den you will ever lay your eyes upon." He leaned in and nuzzled their noses together. "Trust me."

Jess smiled sweetly and breathlessly replied while the brunet felt her fingers reach up and tangle in his hair, "If we ever make it, that is…" Mike felt the blonde's warm breath on his cheek as she slowly kissed down his jaw, little sucking noises leaving her lips every time she moved lower and lower. He was rubbing small circles into her hips with the pads of his thumbs when she pulled away and mumbled with a smirk, "And, to be honest, I'm not really sure I wanna walk all that way just to get a little privacy~"

Mike chuckled, working his hands under her jacket and up her belly as he breathed with a grin, "Damn, I think you're readin' my mind, Miss. Jessica."

"Mhm." She winked before pursing her lips and moving her hands down from the brunet's hair to the collar of his jacket, yanking sharply and almost causing Mike, his hazel eyes blown wide with arousal, to fall directly on top of her with a giggle. "And you know what? I have just psychically foretold the answer to your question."

"Oh? And what is my question?"

Jess laughed. "I'll give you a teeny hint, hotshot. It concerns whether or not you're about to get lucky or n-"

SLAM!

"Hey pornst- oh shit!"

Jess' hands immediately left the brunet's neck, her eyes growing wide with panic and embarrassment, and shoved hard against his chest with a squeal, Mike, not expecting such a strong push from his girlfriend, yelping as he stumbled backwards and tripped on one of the loose floorboards under his feet. He went down hard, banging his left elbow on the deck and sending a sharp surge of pain up his arm as he clenched his fist and tried not to look like a complete idiot while at the same time holding the appendage close to his chest.

_Really, Josh? Right now. Right now, you had to come up here?_

He stood up carefully, stretching his arm outwards to make sure nothing was bruised or broken, and gave the Washington the side eye, his eyes alternating between Jess, who had a hand over her mouth, and the other man standing in the doorway, fidgeting with something in his hand uncomfortably while he looked at the ground. _Way to cockblock, damn._ "Can we help you, Josh?" Mike questioned slowly, feeling the blonde shift forward and stand beside him with a cocked hip, her face now pulled into a pissed off expression as she took his right hand in her left.

Josh looked up briefly before returning his gaze to the ground with a nervous laugh and stated as the thing he was holding clacked in his fingers, "I, uh, just wanted to give you these. Didn't realize you two were… well, you know." Looking up with a grin, he held up a key ring with three glinting keys attached and threw them at Mike, who quickly grabbed them out of the air with his left hand. The metal stung his palm, partly from the cold and partly from the catch, and he placed them into his vest pocket without a second thought, zipping up said pocket right after to make sure that they didn't go flying out into the snow by accident.

"How long have you been standing there?" Jessica snapped, taking a step forward as Josh leaned against the doorframe with crossed arms and a frown on his face. His grey eyes drifted to Mike, who kept his face neutral because he didn't want to pick sides between his girlfriend and his host right after he was so close to getting laid, as Jess continued with wave, "Because if you've been standing there this whole time, that's really kinda fucked up."

Josh snorted and replied with a roll of his eyes, "Please. Why the Hell would I want to watch you two when I've got so much shit to do as it is?" He scowled and placed his hand on the doorknob as he continued with an exasperated tone, "I just wanted to say that I was sorry I had to kick you guys out after what happened with Em and Matt. Though I'm sure if what I just saw was anything to go by," he gave both of them a pointed look before shrugging his shoulders and turning back to the door, Mike's face pulling into a frown as he anticipated where the Washington was going with his speech, "You guys will have no trouble figurin' out what to do with your time."

"Yeah okay, Josh," Mike said briskly, pulling Jess closer to him and wrapping an arm around her shoulder as the Washington managed to open the door in front of him with a click. Mike turned and smiled at Jess, who returned his smile with just a tad more smugness, before speaking to Josh firmly, "Like you said, we have plenty of things to do. So if you don't mind…" He squeezed Jess's shoulder quickly, eliciting a giggle from the blonde as a huge grin adorned his face, before ending with, "We've got some _unfinished business _to take care of."

Josh stood for a moment and stared at the two of them, his face expressionless as his eyes drifted from Mike to Jess with his hand poised delicately over the doorknob as Mike waited for the Washington to just grab it and go inside. _Just leave already!_

The brunet opened his mouth to break the Washington out of whatever trance he had lost himself into, but Jess (_His spunky, sexy Jess_) beat him to the punch. "Can you just friggin' leave already?!" she snipped as she glared at Josh for a second, twirling her braid around her right index finger angrily before turning around and walking back to the railing, sighing loudly as she placed her forearms on the wood with a plop and promptly ignored the two men as she gazed out into the snowstorm.

"...y-yeah. Yeah. Yep, I, uh," Josh looked back at the door with a frown, his grey eyes searching the doorknob as he hunched over again, Mike crossing his arms and raising a brow while gesturing his right hand in a go-on motion. Jess looked over her shoulder and coughed loudly, cupping a fist around her mouth to make the noise louder and more aggressive as her grey eyes pierced at the Washington's face.

Another uncomfortable five seconds passed and then Josh laughed lightly, looking at Mike with a grin on his face while he straightened up again and brushed off the sleeve of his shirt absentmindedly. The brunet, his weirdness meter ticking up minute by freaking minute, frowned back. "I- just wanted to tell you you're gonna have to fire up the generators down the path if you wanna see where you're going." The Washington pointed with his right hand towards the staircase that led down to the base of the lodge, "It should be right down the path and to the right. Can't miss it."

_Uhh, thanks?_ "Roger that," Mike said dryly as he looked in annoyance at the snow-covered steps, narrowing his hazel eyes while he surveyed the work it would take to clear them, and then turned his back to Josh as he began to walk over to where Jess stood as she rubbed her arms to warm herself from the wind, hearing the door open behind him with a click of the handle-

And then hearing the door slam open with a crash that almost sent Mike to the floor for a second time that night, his foot slipping on the icy planks as he quickly caught himself by pitching forward and grabbing the railing. _What the fuck!?_ Jessica let out a frightened noise as she jumped and whipped around, one of her braids slapping Mike in the face as he righted himself again. "Fuck nuggets, Josh!" he cursed as turned around and surveyed the door, his face hot with embarrassment from the fact that he had been _scared_ by one of the Washington's pranks after all the years they had been acquaintances. _Damnit! I should have fucking known he would try something like th-_

But Josh hadn't slammed the door. He was standing idly to the left of the wooden frame, his face set into a look of panic as he tracked the person in front of him with wide eyes and clenched fists. _Oooooooh shit. _As for Michael, he knew that speaking would probably only escalate the situation and, just by looking at the familiar face in front of him, knew that that would only result in a bigger blow up at him or at Jess. _Oh, we are not doing this right now._

Jessica was the first to speak, her grey eyes blazing as she took a step forward and pulled Mike along with her. The brunet had to plant his feet to stop his girlfriend before the blonde got to take a swing at the girl in front of her.

"_Emily._"

Mike pulled Jess back sharply to give Emily some space, his eyes looking over the messiness of her black hair and the hardness in her brown eyes. "What're doing up here, Em?" _Really bad timing, Em..._

_She's been crying._ Mike blew out some fog from his mouth and sighed, his eyes dancing over to Jess anxiously before returning to Emily. _Jesus Christ. Really, really bad timing..._

"Leaving."

"What?"

Emily gave him a glare and huffed, folding her arms over her chest as she snapped, "As if I'm spending the rest of my time up here on the mountain with **you** and your latest **bitch** over here." She glared at Mike, her brown eyes staring through the brunet in a way that made him squeamish. Jess opened her mouth to say something, but Emily, her eyes colder than the snow buzzing around the pair's heads, snarled out before the latter could get a mention in overwise, "_I'm _going up to the cabin. And then, in the morning, I will be _leaving_ the mountain."

"It's too dangerous to be going out there in the dark by yourself." That was Josh, his voice taking on a shaky quality that Mike had never heard before.

Emily laughed shrilly, her distraught state becoming more apparent to Mike with each passing second. He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably as Emily growled, "I'll be fine, I'm sure." She shifted her gaze from Mike to Jess, her tone becoming more distant as she finished with, "I don't think anything can be much worse than _her_ anyway."

And with that, Emily swiftly turned on her heel and stalked over to the stairs, quickly descending them with a pit-pat of her boots until her black bob was no longer in Mike's line of sight. A huff was admitted beside him and he felt Jess' hand pull out of his, leaving the exposed skin extra cold in the winter breeze. "I hope she gets eaten by a bear," Jess muttered as the brunet turned around to see her walking towards the door, now swinging precariously on it's hinges, that led back into the lodge.

"I think you just bring out the worst in her." He kept his tone light, trying to bring back the mood they had established earlier as he quickly walked up behind the blonde and squeezed her ass.

She looked over her shoulder and smirked as she asked with a quirked brow, "Is that so?"

"Epic jealousy." The brunet grabbed the edge of the door so that it wouldn't slam into his girlfriend she walked through and smiled, combing the other hand through his hair to try to remove any snowflakes from the locks. A warm wave of heat met his face and the overwhelming urge to run into the lodge and to go to sleep overtook the brunet as he shuffled his feet and waited for Jess to walk through the walkway. _Damn, this door is cold._

Jess turned right as she was about to step into the lodge and said smugly, gesturing her head in the direction of the staircase, "Suck it."


End file.
